SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC 


THE  MUSIC  LOVERS'  SERIES 


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The  Love  Affairs  of  Great  Musicians 

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El- 


WILLIAM   5HAKL5PEAREI. 

FRDM  THE  PAINTING  BY  P.  KRAMER. 


Shakespeare 

irv  M\jsic    «*   ** 

A  Collation  of  the  Chief  Musical  Allusions 
in  the  Plays  of  Shakespeare^  with  an  At- 
tempt at  'Their  Explanation  and  Derivation^ 
Together  with  Much  of  the  Original  Music 


t 


to 


By 
LOUIS    C.     ELSON 

Author  of  "Great  Composers,"  "The  National  Music 
of  America,"  etc.,  etc. 


Illustrated 


BOSTON        * 
L.    C.    PAGE    6? 

t&*  l2r*  t&*  t2P 


&        *        J> 
COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


jj*WW»?^^*?*^^S»*WW«*««WSWW8I 


Copyright,  1900 

By  L.  C.  Page  &  Company 

(incorporated) 

All  rights  reserved 


•  •  •  • « • 

.  v  :  :• : 


Six£h  Impression,  April,  1908 
'SeVeritrf  Impression,  January,  191 4 


Made  in  U.  S.  A. 


PRINTED  BY   C.  H.  SIMONDS   COMPANY 
BOSTON,   MASS.,  U.  S.  A. 


TO 

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(pf  Edinburgh  University) 

WITH  CORDIAL  REMEMBRANCE  OF   MANY  PLEASANT   CONFERENCES 

ON   THIS   AND    KINDRED    TOPICS   THIS   VOLUME   IS 

AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED   BY 

THE   AUTHOR 


(166198 


PREFACE. 

In  preparing  this  volume  on  the  music  of  Shake- 
speare, the  author  has  been  animated  by  a  desire  to 
show  how  closely  the  great  poet  allied  himself  to  the 
Divine  Art.  Few  of  the  readers  of  Shakespeare  are 
aware  of  how  much  of  his  musical  material  can  be 
traced  home ;  many  are  unable  to  follow  some  of  the 
poet's  most  subtile  metaphors  because  they  are  un- 
familiar with  the  musical  works  to  which  he  refers, 
or  with  the  song  or  melody  which  enriches  the  scene. 
It  is  hoped  that  this  effort  may  in  some  degree  give 
light  upon  a  few  of  the  dark  places  in  the  text.  The 
classification  has  been  difficult,  for,  in  many  of  the 
scenes,  different  branches  of  music  are  simultane- 
ously touched  upon.  In  such  cases,  in  order  to 
preserve  the  beauty  of  the  text,  the  author  has 
deemed  it  best  to  cite  the  entire  passage,  rather  than 
give  it  piecemeal,  and  refer  back  to  it  as  often  as 
necessary ;  he  hopes  that  the  repetition  made  impera- 
tive by  such  a  course  will  find  its  apology  in  the 
poetic  gain  of  reading  a  complete  thought,  or  se- 
quence of  thoughts.  As  far  as  possible,  musical 
technicalities  have  been  avoided,  for  Shakespeare's 
musical  allusions  were  intended,  not  for  musicians 
only,  but  for  all  the  world. 

Louis  C.  Elson. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

PAGB 

The  Musical  Side  of  the  Poet  —  His  Versatility  —  The  Orches- 
tra in  the  Time  of  Shakespeare  —  Drayton's  Description  of 
English  Instruments  —  Bacon's  Summary  of  Music  in  Eliza- 
bethan Days  —  A  Comparison  of  Bacon  and  Shakespeare  in 
Their  Musical  Allusions  —  A  Contribution  to  the  Baconian 
Controversy  —  Concerted  Music  at  the  End  of  the'Sixteenth 
Century 1 1 


CHAPTER   II. 

Instruments  Mentioned  by  Shakespeare  —  "  Consorts  "  —  Fifes 
—  Viols  —  The  Recorders  —  The  Bagpipe     .         .        .         .     25 


CHAPTER   III. 

Instruments,  continued  —  The  Virginals  —  A  Musical  Error  — 
The  Sonnets  —  Musical  Mistakes  of  Great  Authors  —  Queen 
Elizabeth  and  Her  Virginal  Playing  —  The  Lute — Difficulty 
of  Tuning  —  Presents  of  Lute  Strings  —  The  Organ      .         .     37 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Musical  Life  of  England  in   Shakespeare's  Time  —  The 
Great  Contrapuntal  Epoch  —  Famous  English  Composers  — 
Status  of  Musicians^-  Shakespeare's   Satirical  Allusions  to 
Musicians  —  Brandt's  "  Ship  of  Fooles  "  —  Musical  Servants     56 
vii 


Vlii  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   V. 


Shakespeare's  Technical  Knowledge  of  Music  — "  Broken 
Music"  —  John  Skelton's  Diatribe  —  Time  Keeping —  Har- 
mony Prized  Above  Mere  Melody  —  The  Eighth  Sonnet  — 
Similar  Views  of  Browning  —  The  Proper  Wedding  of  Poetry 
and  Music —  "The  Passionate  Pilgrim  " —  Wagner  and  Her- 
bert Spencer  on  the  Union  of  the  Two  Arts  .        .        .        .78 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Musical  Knowledge  of  Shakespeare,  continued  —  Surer  in 
Vocal  than  in  Instrumental  Work  —  Technical  Vocal  Terms 

—  "  Setting  "  a  Tune  —  Burdens  —  Division,  Key,  and  Gamut 

—  Plain-song 96 

CHAPTER   VII.  V 

The  Dances  of  Shakespeare  —  Many  Dances  Sung  —  The 
Dump  —  Other  Dances  —  England  Fond  of  Lively  Dances 

—  The  Morris-dance — Masques  —  These  Preceded  Operas 

in  England      .  119 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

Shakespeare's  ./Esthetic  Appreciation  of  Music  —  Index  to 
Characters  by  Their  Appreciation  of  Music  —  Famous  Per- 
sons Who  Have  Disliked  Music  —  Shakespeare's  Jests  at 
Music  Balanced  by  His  Tributes  to  the  Art  —  Evening  Music 

—  The  Music  of  the  Sea  —  The  Music  of  the  Spheres  .        .151 

CHAPTER   IX. 

The  Bacchanalian  Music  of  Shakespeare  —  Early  English 
Drinking-songs  —  Skelton's  Ale-song  —  Tavern  Life  and  Cus- 
toms —  Catches  —  Ancient  Rounds  —  "  Three-men's  Songs  "  169 

CHAPTER  X. 

Bacchanalian  Music,  continued  —  A  Scottish  Melody  Used  by 
Shakespeare  —  Table-music  in  Elizabethan  Days  —  Refrains 


CONTENTS.  IX 

PAGE 

of  Catches  and  Ballads  —  Hunt's-ups —  Serenades — Morn- 
ing Songs 199 

CHAPTER   XI.  ^ 

The  Ballads  of  Shakespeare  —  Antiquity  of  English  Ballads  — 
Antique  Examples  —  Ophelia's^ Ballads  —  The  Pathology  of 
the  Mad-scene  —  Edgar's  Music  in  "  King  Lear  "  —  Mad- 
songs  in  This  Epoch  —  Autolycus  and  His  Ballads  in 
"Winter's  Tale"— Plots  of  Shakespearian  Plays  as  Found 
in  Ballads  —  "  Greensleeves,"  as  Cited  by  Shakespeare  .  229 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Shakespeare's  Lyrics  —  The  Lyric  Poets  of  the  Elizabethan 
Epoch  —  Ben  Jonson  —  Marlowe  —  Parodies  of  Other  Poets 
—  Doubtful  Poems  —  The  Numerous  Settings  of  Shake- 
speare's Poems  —  "  Take,  Oh  Take  Those  Lips  Away  "  — 
"Come  Live  with  Me  and  Be  My  Love"  —  German  Transla- 
tions and  German  Musical  Settings  of  Shakespeare  —  Schu- 
bert's "  Hark,  Hark,  the  Lark  "  —  Purcell      .         .        .         .298 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Children  as  Singers —  Shakespeare's  Musical  Stage-directions  — 
The  **  Chorus  "  —  Musical  Interludes  —  Music  after  Plays  — 
Final  Jigs  —  Trumpet  Signals  —  Drums  —  Bells  —  Sennet  — 
Pageants  upon  Stage  —  Historical  Music       .        .         .         .316 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Musical  Influence  of  Shakespeare  —  Various  Kinds  of 
Music  Inspired  by  Shakespeare's  Plays  —  Influence  on 
Wagner  —  Berlioz  and  his  Shakespearian  Subjects  —  Con- 
clusion     c  330 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


TAGB 


William  Shakespeare        ....        Frontispiece 

Michael  Drayton .13 

Francis  Bacon 22 

Artist  Playing  Viol  da  Gamba  .  .  .  .27 
Stradivarius,  King  of  Violin  -  makers  ...  29 
" ' Lock  up  my  doors  :   and  when  you  hear  the 

DRUM  '" 30 

Gentleman  Playing  Recorder         .        .        .        .32 

Title-page  of  "Parthenia" 38 

Gentleman  Playing  Lute 44 

The  Lute -player 50 

Guido    of    Arezzo    and    His    Protector,    Bishop 

Theodal 81 

" « O,  Now  Be  Gone  :   More  Light  and  Light  It 

Grows"' 116 

William  Kempe 122 

" «  Sometimes  a  Thousand  Twangling  Instruments 

Will  Hum  about  Mine  Ears'"         .        .         .  183 

"  ' Shall  I  Bid  Him  Go  and  Spare  Not ? '"  .         .  207 

"Tell  Me,  Where  Is  Fancy  Bred"        .        .        .  225 

'"For  Bonny  Sweet  Robin  Is  All  My  Joy'"       .  240 

"  <  A  Pick-axe  and  a  Spade,  a  Spade '"         .        .  300 

Henry  Purcell 314 

\ 


LIST  OF  MUSIC. 


Sellinger's  Round 

"  Under  the  Greenwood  Tree  "      .        • 
The  Old  Melody  of  "  Heart's  -  ease  "   . 
A  Song  to  the  Lute  in  Musicke    . 
The  Carman's  Whistle     .... 

Light  o'  Love 

"  Now  Is  the  Month  of  Maying  "  {Facsimile) 

An  Evening  Hymn  {Facsimile)    . 

Examples  from  Playford's  "An  Introduction 

the  Skill  of  Musick"  {Facsimile)     . 
Example  of  "  Division  "     . 

Trip  and  Go 

La  Romanesca 

King  Harry  the  VIII.'s  Pavyn 
Lady  Carey's  Dump  {First  Period)    . 

The  Kyng's  Maske 

"  Take  Those  Lips  Away  "... 
"Wilt  Thou  Be  Fat"  {Facsimile)     . 
Example  of  a  "  Catch  "  {Facsimile) . 
"  Where  the  Bee  Sucks  "... 
"Full  Fathoms  Five"       .... 
"  It  Was  a  Lover  and  His  Lass  "  . 
"  Row  the  Boat,  Norman,  Row  " 
"Take  Thy  Old  Cloak  about  Thee"    . 
"O  Mistress  Mine"  \ 


TO 


PAGE 

43 
63 

68 

7i 
76 

100 

103 

107 

112 
M5 

123 

127 
136 
i43 
145 
167 
177 
180 
184 
187 
192 

195 
202 
209 


xiv  LIST  OF  MUSIC. 

PAGE 

/'Hold  Thy  Peace" 211 

Peg- a- Ramsey 212 

"Three  Merry  Men  Be  We" 214 

Corydon's  Farewell  to  Phillis      .        .        .        .216 

"Jack,  Boy,  Ho!  Boy!" 221 

«  What   Shall   He  Have  that  Kill'd  the  Deer  " 

{Facsimile)        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .224 

Hunts -up,  or  Morning  Song 226 

"As  I  Went  on  Zol  Day"  {Facsimile)  .  .  .231 
«  And  How  Should  I  Your  True  Love  Know  "  .  236 
"  For  Bonny  Sweet  Robin  Is  All  my  Joy  "  .  .  242 
"  Jog  on,  Jog  on  the  Footpath  Way  "  .  .  .  248 
"  Whoop,  Do  Me  no  Harm,  Good  Man  ".  .  .  253 
Gernutus,  the  Jew  of  Venice  ....     255 

King  Lear  and  His  Three  Daughters  .  .  .  262 
Titus  Andronicus's  Complaint         ....     269 

Greensleeves      287 

"  Oh  !  Willow,  Willow,  Willow  !  "  .  .  .291 
"  The  Aged  Lover  Renounceth  Love  "  .  .  .  303 
"  Come  Live  with  Me  and  Be  My  Love  "  .  .  307 
"When  that  I  Was  a  Little  Tiny  Boy"     .        .    321 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


CHAPTER   I. 

The  Musical  Side  of  the  Poet  —  His  Versatility  —  The  Orchestra  in 
the  Time  of  Shakespeare  —  Drayton's  Description  of  English 
Instruments  —  Bacon's  Summary  of  Music  in  Elizabethan  Days 
—  A  Comparison  of  Bacon  and  Shakespeare  in  Their  Musical 
Allusions  —  A  Contribution  to  the  Baconian  Controversy  —  Con- 
certed Music  at  the  End  of  the  Sixteenth  Century. 

Three  centuries  ago  there  existed  upon  the  earth 
a  man  with  a  mind  so  wonderful  and  versatile  that 
hundreds  of  commentators  and  thousands  of  commen- 
taries have  not  exhausted  the  many  topics  which  he 
has  presented  to  posterity.1     It  is  our  purpose,  t  in 

this  volume,  to  examine  but  one  pfeas^oi  that  mincl; 

•  •  •  •  * 

—  its  musical  side  only,  —  yet  even. when  co»fiiaed;tci 
this  single  field  the  investigatck.'ie*  confronted' wit n 
an  amount  of  material  and  a  wealth  of  suggestions 
that  makes  the  task  far  larger  than  would  at  first 
sight  be  imagined. 

1  In  the  Boston  Public  Library  there  are  more  than  3,250  differ- 
ent works  connected  with  this  topic. 

II 


12  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC 

In  order  to  comprehend  many  of  the  Shakespearian 
allusions,  it  is  necessary  to  begin  by  examining  the 
orchestra  of  his  time,  for,  while  voices  remain  practi- 
cally the  same  in  all  ages,  the  instruments  of  music 
undergo  changes  that  cause  the  music  of  one  epoch 
to  be  very  dissimilar  from  that  of  another.  Such  a 
combination  of  instruments  as  a  modern  would  call 
an  "orchestra"  scarcely  existed  at  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century. 

During  the  poet's  life,  the  opera  was  invented  in 
Italy  (i  594-1600)  and  new  combinations  of  instru- 
ments began.  But  the  influence  of  the  new  school 
was  not  felt  in  England  during  the  lifetime  of  Shake- 
speare. Nevertheless,  England  had  been  accustomed 
to  combinations  of  musical  instruments  from  a  very 
early  epoch.     Chaucer  mentions 

"  Cornemuse  and  Shalmyes 
And  many  other  maner  pipe," 

which  were  undoubtedly  instruments  with  which  he 
was  acquainted,  and  also  speaks  of  concerted  playing, 
"'Bothe  yh  :j>bivced  and  yn  Rede."  ■ 

1  rPrdf/T.*lt.'Lb\inib^r^  invited  the  author,  in  1894,  to  join  in  the 
search  of  the  solution  of  the  mystic  words,  "  Bothe  yn  Dowced  and 
yn  Rede,"  which  end  this  citation.  But  beyond  the  fact  that 
Grassineau,  in  1740,  defines  it  as  "  Douced,  a  musical  instrument 
with  strings  of  wire,  commonly  called  a  Dulcimer,"  no  reference 
to  u  Dowsed "  was  found  in  any  of  the  old  musical  dictionaries  to 
which  reference  was  had.  Murray's  new  Oxford  dictionary,  how- 
ever, defines  it  as  "  a  wind-instrument  resembling  a  flute." 


MICHAEL   DRAYTON. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  1 3 

A  detailed  account  of  English  instruments  of  the 
Elizabethan  epoch  is  given  by  Michael  Drayton 
(i  563-1631),  contemporary  and  friend  of  Shake- 
speare, in  his  great  work  entitled  "  Poly-Olbion," 
the  first  part  of  which  was  published  in  161 3.  The 
following  extract  is  found  in  the  fourth  song,  and 
illustrates  a  trial  or  contention  between  the  Welsh 
and  the  English;  the  Welsh  have  displayed  their 
instruments  in  detail  and  the  English  answer  them  : 

"  The  English  that  repined  to  be  delayed  so  long, 

All  quickly  at  the  hint,  as  with  one  free  consent, 

Strook  up  at  once  and  sung  each  to  the  instrument; 

(Of  sundry  sorts  there  were,  as  the  musician  likes) 

On  which  the  practiced  hand  with  perfect'st  fingering  strikes, 

Whereby  their  right  of  skill  might  liveliest  be  expressed. 

The  trembling  lute  some  touch,  some  strain  the  violl  best, 

In  setts  r  which  there  were  seene,  the  Musick  wondrous  choices 

Some  likewise  there  affect  the  Gamba  with  the  voice, 

To  shew  that  England  could  varietie  afforde. 

Some  that  delight  to  touch  the  sterner  wyerie  chord, 

The  Cithron,  the  Pandore,  and  the  Theorbo  strike; 

The  Gittern  and  the  Kit  the  wandering  fidlers  like. 

So  there  were  some  againe,  in  this  their  learned  strife, 

Loud  instruments  that  loved,  the  Cornet  and  the  Phife, 

The  Hoboy,  Sagbut  deepe,  Recorder  and  the  Flute, 

Even  from  the  shrillest  Shawm  unto  the  Cornemute, 

Some  blow  the  Bagpipe  up,  that  plaies  the  country  'round, 

The  Tabor  and  the  Pipe  some  take  delight  to  sound." 

III,,.*.    llW^1  ■HWI    'II  Mil  N«*y.  _ 

Most  of  these  instruments  will  be  defined  in  the 

ensuing  chapters ;  it  is  interesting  to  find  them  thus 
\ 

1  Of  "  sets  of  viols  "  more  hereafter. 


14  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

grouped  together  in  a  poem  which  Shakespeare  must 
have  been  familiar  with. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  as  to  the  reliability  of 
Drayton  in  his  list  of  instruments.  The  elder  Dis- 
raeli, in  his  "Amenities  of  Literature,"  sums  up  the 
"  Poly-Olbion  "  thus  : 

"  This  remarkable  poem  remains  without  a  parallel  in  the 
poetical  annals  of  any  people.  ...  It  is  a  chorographical 
description  of  England  and  Wales;  an  amalgamation  of 
antiquarianism,  of  topography,  and  of  history.  .  .  .  This 
poem  has  the  accuracy  of  a  road-book ! " 

But  we  can  complete  our  survey  of  the  musical 
combinations  of  the  Shakespearian  epoch  by  studying 
a  more  prosaic  writer  than  Michael  Drayton.  Francis 
Bacon,  Lord  Verulam,  has  left  to  the  world  a  very 
precise  description  of  Elizabethan  music  in  the  second 
and  third  centuries,  or  chapters,  of  his  "Sylva 
Sylvarum." 

As  a  passing  eccentricity  of  the  time  is  occu- 
pying itself  with  endeavouring  to  prove  that  Bacon 
was  really  the  author  of  Shakespeare's  works,  it  may 
be  of  double  interest  to  compare  the  stolid  cata- 
loguing of  the  one  with  the  poetic  musical  fervour  of 
the  other,  and  in  a  later  chapter,  devoted  to  the 
dances  of  Shakespeare,  we  shall  find  the  poet 
enthusiastic,  the  philosopher  disdainful,  when  com- 
menting upon  a  similar  subject. 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  1 5 

Bacon  says : 

"  Music,  in  the  practice,  hath  been  well  pursued,  and  in 
good  variety ;  but  in  the  theory,  and  especially  in  the  yielding 
of  the  causes  of  the  practique,  very  weakly;  being  reduced 
into  certain  mystical  subtilties,  of  no  use  and  not  much  truth. 
We  shall  therefore,  after  our  manner,  join  the  contemplative 
and  active  part  together.  .  .  . 

"  The  diapason  or  eighth  in  music  is  the  sweetest  concord ; 
insomuch  as  it  is  in  effect  a  unison ;  as  we  see  in  lutes  that 
are  strung  in  the  base  strings  with  two  strings,  one  an  eighth 
above  another;  which  make  but  as  one  sound.  And  every 
eighth  note  in  ascent  (as  from  eight  to  fifteen,  from  fifteen  to 
twenty-two,  and  so  on  ad  infinitum*)  are  but  scales  of  diapason. 
The  cause  is  dark  and  hath  not  been  rendered  by  any ;  and 
therefore  would  be  better  contemplated." 

After  which  Lord  Verulam  goes  on  to  show  that 
the  air  is  forced  "to  recur  into  one  and  the  same 
figure,  only  differing  in  greatness  and  smallness " 
in  making  these  consonances.  We  cannot  resist 
stating  that  Shakespeare  makes  not  a  single  meta- 
phor upon  these  points  which  Bacon  so  strongly 
emphasises. 

Of  the  emotions  of  music  Bacon  speaks  at  consid- 
erable length : 

"  Tones  are  not  so  apt  altogether  to  procure  sleep  as  some 
other  sounds ;  as  the  wind,  the  purling  of  water,  the  humming 
of  bees,  a  sweet  voice  of  one  that  readeth,  etc. ;  the  cause 
whereof  is  for  that  tones,  because  they  are  equal  and  slide 
not,  do  more  strike  and  erect  the  sense  than  the  other.  And 
overmuch  attention  hindereth  sleep." 


1 6  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Yet  Shakespeare  causes  the  boy  in  Brutus's  tent 
—  "Julius  Caesar,"  Act  iv.  Sc.  4  —  to  fall  asleep  to 
music. 

Bacon,  however,  fully  understood  the  effects  of 
consonance  and  dissonance,  as  witness  the  following : 

"  There  be  in  music  certain  figures  or  tropes ;  almost  agree- 
ing with  the  figures  of  rhetoric,  and  with  the  affections  of  the 
mind,  and  other  senses.  First,  the  division  and  quavering, 
which  please  so  much  in  music,  have  an  agreement  with  the 
glittering  of  light ;  as  the  moonbeams  playing  upon  a  wave. 
Again,  the  falling  of  a  discord  to  a  concord,  which  maketh 
great  sweetness  in  music,  hath  an  agreement  with  the  affec- 
tions, which  are  reintegrated  to  the  better  after  some  dis- 
likes; it  agreeth  also  with  the  taste,  which  is  soon  glutted 
after  that  which  is  sweet  alone.  The  sliding  from  the  close 
or  cadence  hath  an  agreement  with  the  figure  in  rhetoric 
which  they  call  prater  expectatum  j  for  there  is  a  pleasure 
even  in  being  deceived.  ...  It  hath  been  anciently  held  and 
observed,  that  the  sense  of  hearing  and  the  kinds  of  music 
have  most  operation  upon  manners ;  as  to  encourage  men  and 
make  them  warlike;  to  make  them  soft  and  effeminate;  to 
make  them  grave;  to  make  them  light;  to  make  them  gentle 
and  inclined  to  pity,  etc.  The  cause  is  for  that  the  sense  of 
hearing  striketh  the  spirits  more  immediately  than  the  other 
j  senses,  and  more  incorporeally  than  the  smelling.  For  the 
"  "sight,  taste,  and  feeling  have  their  organs  not  of  so  present 
and  immediate  access  to  the  spirits  as  the  hearing  hath.  And 
as  for  the  smelling  (which  indeed  worketh  also  immediately 
upon  the  spirits,  and  is  forcible  while  the  object  remaineth), 
it  is  with  a  communication  of  the  breath  or  vapour  of  the 
object  odorate;  but  harmony,  entering  easily,  and  mingling 
not  at  all,  and  coming  with  a  manifest  motion,  doth  by  custom 
of  often  affecting  the  spirits  and  putting  them  in  one  kind  of 
posture,  alter  not  a  little  the  nature  of  the  spirits,  even  when 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  1 7 

the  object  is  removed.  And,  therefore,  we  see  that  tunes  and 
airs,  even  in  their  own  nature,  have  in  themselves  some  affinity 
with  the  affections:  as  there  be  merry  tunes,  doleful  tunes, 
solemn  tunes;  tunes  inclining  men's  minds  to  pity;  warlike 
tunes,  etc.  So  as  it  is  no  marvel  if  they  alter  the  spirits,  con- 
sidering the  tunes  have  a  predisposition  to  the  motion  of  the 
spirits  themselves.  But  yet  it  hath  been  noted,  that  though 
this  variety  of  tunes  doth  dispose  the  spirits  to  variety  of  pas- 
sions conform  unto  them,  yet  generally  music  feedeth  that 
disposition  of  the  spirits  which  it  findeth.  We  see  also  that 
several  airs  and  tunes  do  please  several  nations  and  persons, 
according  to  the  sympathy  they  have  with  their  spirits." 

Shakespeare  has  stated  similar  facts,  but  very 
much  more  fluently.     Bacon  continues  : 

"All  instruments  that  have  either  returns,  as  trumpets;  or 
flexions,  as  cornets ;  or  are  drawn  up  and  put  from,  as  Sack- 
buts,  have  a  purling  sound:  but  the  recorder  or  flute,  that 
have  none  of  these  inequalities,  give  a  clear  sound.  Never- 
theless, the  recorder  itself,  or  pipe,  moistened  a  little  on  the 
inside,  soundeth  more  solemnly,  and  with  a  little  purling  or 
hissing.  Again,  a  wreathed  string,  such  as  are  in  the  base 
strings  of  bandoras,  giveth  also  a  purling  sound.  But  a  lute- 
string, if  it  be  merely  unequal  in  his  x  parts,  giveth  a  harsh 
and  untuneable  sound ;  which  strings  we  call  false,  being 
bigger  in  one  place  than  in  another,  and  therefore  wire  strings 
are  never  false." 

The.  above  sentence  speaks  of  many  instruments 
that  we  shall  examine  in  the  next  two  chapters ;  at 
present  we  need  merely  state  that  the  "  cornet  "  was 

1  The  use  of  "  his  "  instead  of  "  its  "  was  a  characteristic  of  this 
and  earlier  times ;  Shakespeare  sometimes  used  the  one,  sometimes 
the  other,  the  change  taking  place  in  Elizabethan  times. 


1 8  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

a  serpentine,  or  curved,  instrument  of  wood  or  of 
brass,  utterly  unlike  the  instrument  of  the  present, 
having  finger-holes  along  its  surface,  in  the  style  of 
a  flute ;  the  name  was  also  applied  to  an  instrument 
like  the  oboe,  of  wood,  but  with  a  mouthpiece  like  a 
trumpet  (see  Chapter  XIII.).  The  "  sackbut "  that  is 
"  drawn  up  and  put  from,"  is  simply  a  slide  trombone. 
The  "  recorder  "  was  a  straight  flute  with  a  flageolet 
mouthpiece.  The  "wreathed  string"  means  a  string 
wound  around  with  wire,  as  the  G  string  of  a  violin. 
Regarding  the  union  of  such  instruments,  or 
"scoring,"  Bacon  says,  very  properly: 

"  The  sweetest  and  best  harmony  is,  when  every  part  or 
instrument  is  not  heard  by  itself,  but  a  conflation  of  them  all, 
which  requireth  to  stand  some  distance  off.  Even  as  it  is  in 
the  mixture  of  perfumes,  or  the  taking  of  the  smells  of  several 
flowers  in  the  air." 

Farther  on,  still  speaking  of  the  same  subject,  the 
union  of  different  instruments,  our  author  says  : 

"  All  concords  and  discords  are  (no  doubt)  sympathies  and 
antipathies  of  sounds.  And  so,  likewise,  in  that  music  which 
we  call  broken  music,1  or  consort  music,  some  consorts  of 
instruments  are  sweeter  than  others  (a  thing  not  sufficiently 
yet  observed):  as  the  Irish  harp  and  base  viol  agree  well,  etc. ; 
but  the  virginals  and  the  lute,  or  the  Welsh  harp  and  the  Irish 
harp,  or  the  voice  and  pipes  alone,  agree  not  so  well.  But  for 
the  melioration  of  music  there  is  yet  much  left  (in  this  point 
of  exquisite  consorts)  to  try  and  inquire." 

1  Of  "  broken  music  "  and  "  consorts  "  we  shall  speak  later  on. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  1 9 

We  have  quoted  thus  much  from  the  "  Sylva  Syl- 
varum"  because  the  work  gives  as  clear  and  exact 
a  statement  of  many  of  the  instruments  of  the  Shake- 
spearian epoch  as  any  volume  of  its  time,  and  also 
because  it  may  afford  the  reader  an  opportunity  to 
compare  the  Baconian  and  Shakespearian  estimates 
of  music.  Bacon  approaches  the  art  with  all  the 
exactness  of  a  scientist,  Shakespeare  with  the  ardour 
of  a  music  lover ;  Bacon  is  most  precise  and  careful 
in  every  statement,  while  Shakespeare  occasionally 
makes  an  error,  proving  the  lack  of  the  investigating 
mind.  Once  having  touched  upon  the  Baconian  con- 
troversy, we  may  be  permitted  to  leave  a  subject 
foreign  to  the  object  of  this  volume,  with  the  state- 
ment that,  until  recently,  Shakespeare's  knowledge 
of  law  was  held  to  be  a  stumbling-block  in  the  path  of 
those  who  chose  to  believe  that  Shakespeare  really 
wrote  his  own  works ;  his  amount  of  legal  lore  was 
held  to  be  too  great  for  a  humble  actor  to  possess, 
and  even  those  who  laughed  cryptograms  and  Baco- 
nian ciphers  to  scorn  felt  moved  to  explain  this  mat- 
ter by  suggesting  that  the  poet  was  for  a  time  in 
an  attorney's  office  on  his  advent  in  London.  Even 
this  hypothesis  seems  unnecessary.  The  Hon.  Charles 
Allen,  ex-justice  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  of 
Massachusetts,  has  recently  let  in  a  flood  of  light 
upon  the  subject,  and  proves  that  Shakespeare  was 
by  no  means  phenomenal  in  this  matter.  In  his  book, 


20  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

entitled  "  Notes  on  the  Bacon-Shakespeare  Ques- 
tion," he  shows  that  when  Shakespeare  uses  a  legal 
word,  technically,  other  litterateurs  of  his  day  have 
done  as  he,  and  oftener  than  he.  Dekker,  Wilkins, 
Middleton,  Spenser,  Donne,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 
Field,  Chapman,  Massinger,  Marston,  Nash,  Hey- 
wood,  Ford,  Shirley,  Greene,  Peele,  Lyly,  Webster, 
Rowley,  Cook  are  cited  for  their  "law,"  many  of 
them  repeatedly.  As  for  Ben  Jonson,  his  love  of  this 
"branch  of  learning"  was  violent,  and  scores  of  pas- 
sages are  quoted  from  his  works.  Chapman  also 
has  a  paragraph  in  his  "  All  Fools,"  which  contains 
a  hundred  technical  terms  of  law,  so  that,  as  Judge 
Allen  says,  "  If  Hamlet's  collection  of  legal  terms 
goes  to  show  that  the  play  was  written  by  Bacon, 
the  play  of  •  All  Fools '  must  have  been  written  by 
Coke  himself." 

In  a  remarkably  keen  and  analytical  review  of  this 
book,1  and  incidentally  of  the  entire  controversy, 
Henry  Austin  Clapp,  Esq.,  gives  a  charming  glance 
at  the  poetic  side  of  the  question.     He  says  : 

"  Judge  Allen  has  a  capitally  good  chapter  on  Bacon's 
acknowledged  verses.  And,  after  quoting  Sir  Francis's  trans- 
lation of  the  ist  Psalm  and  portions  of  his  version  of  the 
90th  and  1 04th,  says,  ■  Of  course  a  good  poet  may  write  bad 
verses  occasionally,'  but  the  peculiarity  of  Bacon's  case  is 
that  never  by  an  accident  did  he  stumble  on  a  good  line.  The 
proposition  of  the  Baconians  involves  the  conclusion  that  the 

1  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  April  21,  1900. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  21 

writer  of  "  The  Merchant  of  Venice,"  "  The  Tempest,"  and  »  A 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream  "  had  degenerated  into  writing  such 
clumsy  verse  as  these  translations,  and  that  he  deemed  the 
latter  worthy  of  preservation  and  publication  with  his  name. 
And  Judge  Allen  might  go  a  very  little  farther  and  add  that 
Bacon's  careful  conserving  of  his  lyrics  is  nearly  proof  positive 
that  he  was  void  of  poetical  taste  and  discrimination  as  well 
as  of  poetical  genius.  A  man  possessed  with  a  scrap  of  judg- 
ment in  this  kind  could  not  have  suffered  such  lyrics  to  be 
handed  down  as  the  sole  authentic  examples  of  his  poetic 
ability.  It  will  not  be  amiss  to  reprint  here  said  translation 
of  the  i st  Psalm: 

" ■  Who  never  gave  to  wicked  reed 

A  yielding  and  attentive  ear ; 
Who  never  sinner's  paths  did  tread, 

Nor  sat  him  down  in  scorner's  chair; 
But  maketh  it  his  whole  delight 

On  law  of  God  to  meditate, 
And  therein  spendeth  day  and  night ; 

That  man  is  in  a  happy  state. 

« ■  He  shall  be  like  the  fruitful  tree, 

Planted  along  a  running  spring, 
Which,  in  due  season,  constantly 

A  goodly  yield  of  fruit  doth  bring ; 
Whose  leaves  continue  always  green, 

And  are  no  prey  to  winter's  power ; 
So  shall  that  man  not  once  be  seen 

Surprised  with  an  evil  hour. 

"'With  wicked  men  it  is  not  so, 
Their  lot  is  of  another  kind : 
All  as  the  chaff,  which  to  and  fro 
Is  tossed  a*l  mercy  of  the  wind. 


22  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

And  when  he  shall  in  judgment  plead, 
A  casting  sentence  bide  he  must ; 

So  shall  he  not  lift  up  his  head 
In  the  assembly  of  the  just. 

"•  For  why?  the  Lord  hath  special  eye 
To  be  the  godly's  stay  at  call ; 
And  hath  given  over,  righteously, 
The  wicked  man  to  take  his  fall.' " 

Since  we  now  leave  Lord  Verulam  and  his  incon- 
testable greatness,  we  add  a  final  excerpt  from  another 
of  his  works,  the  "  Essayes."  In  the  course  of  a  few 
chapters  the  reader  will  be  made  acquainted  with 
Shakespeare's  love  of  dancing  and  revelry  ;  the  follow- 
ing is  Bacon's  essay  on  one  of  the  principal  phases  of 
the  revelry  of  that  epoch,  the  masques  and  triumphs 
which  preceded  the  introduction  of  opera  into  Eng- 
land.    As  the  essay  is  short,  we  quote  it  entire : 

"OF   MASQUES    AND    TRIUMPHS. 

"  These  things  are  but  Toyes,  to  come  amongst  such  Serious 
Observations.  But  yet,  since  Princes  will  have  such  Things, 
it  is  better  that  they  should  be  Graced  with  Elegancy,  than 
daubed  with  Cost.  Dancing  to  Song  is  a  Thing  of  great 
State,  and  Pleasure.  I  understand  it,  that  the  Song  be  in 
Quire,  placed  aloft,  and  accompanied  with  some  broken 
Musicke;  And  the  Ditty  fitted  to  the  Device. 

"  Acting  in  Song,  especially  in  Dialogues,  hath  an  extreme 
Good  Grace ;  I  say  Acting,  not  Dancing,  (For  that  is  a  Meane 
and  Vulgar  Thing ;)  And  the  Voices  of  the  Dialogue  would  be 
Strong  and  Manly  (A  Base  and  a  Tenour;  No  Treble;)  And 


Vrancis  bacon. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  2$ 

the  Ditty,  High  and  Tragicall ;  Not  Nice  or  Dainty.  Severall 
Quires,  placed  one  over  against  another,  and  taking  the  Voice 
by  Catches,  Antheme-w'ise,  give  great  Pleasure.  Turning 
Dances,  into  Figure,  is  a  childish  Curiosity.  And  generally, 
let  it  be  noted,  that  those  Things,  which  I  here  set  downe,  are 
such  as  doe  naturally  take  the  Sense,  and  not  respect  Petty 
Wonderments. 

"  It  is  true,  the  Alterations  of  Scenes,  so  it  be  quietly,  and 
without  Noise,  are  Things  of  great  Beauty  and  Pleasure :  for 
they  feed  and  relieve  the  Eye,  before  it  be  full  of  the  same 
Object.  Let  the  Scenes  abound  with  Light,  specially  Coloured 
and  Varied :  And  let  the  Masquers,  or  any  other,  that  are  to 
come  down  from  the  Scene,  have  some  Motions,  upon  the 
Scene  itselfe,  before  their  comming  down :  For  it  draws  the  Eye 
strangely,  and  makes  it  with  great  pleasure,  to  desire  to  see 
that,  it  cannot  perfectly  discerne.  Let  the  Songs  be  Loud  and 
Cheerefull,  and  not  Chirpings  or  Pulings.  Let  the  Musicke 
likewise,  be  Sharpe,  and  Loud,  and  Well  Placed.  The  Col- 
ours that  shew  best  by  Candlelight  are  :  White,  Carnation,  and 
a  Kinde  of  Sea-Water-Greene  ;  and  Oes  and  Spangles,  as  they 
are  of  no  great  Cost,  so  they  are  of  most  Glory.  As  for  Rich 
Embroidery,  it  is  lost  and  not  Discerned.  Let  the  Sutes  of  the 
Masquers,  be  Gracefull,  and  such  as  become  the  Person  when 
the  Vizars  are  off ;  Not  after  Examples  of  Knowne  Attires ; 
Turkes,  Soldiers,  Mariners,  and  the  Like.  Let  Antimasques 
not  be  long;  They  have  been  commonly  of  Fooles,  Satyres, 
Baboones,  Wilde-Men,  Antiques,  Beasts,  Sprites,  Witches, 
Ethiopes,  Pigmies,  Turquets,  Nimphs,  Rusticks,  Cupids, 
Statua's  Moving,  and  the  like.  As  for  Angels  it  is  not  Comi- 
call  enough,  to  put  them  in  Anti-Masques ;  And  any  Thing 
that  is  hideous,  as  Devils,  Giants,  is  on  the  other  side  as  unfit. 
But  chiefly,  let  the  Musicke  of  them,  be  Recreative,  and  with 
some  strange  Changes.  Some  Sweet  Odours,  suddenly  coming 
forth,  without  any  drops  falling,  are,  in  such  a  Company,  as 
there  is  Steame  and  HeVte,  Things  of  Great  Pleasure  &  Re* 


24  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

freshment.  Double-Masques,  one  of  Men,  another  of  Ladies, 
addeth  State  and  Variety.  But  All  is  Nothing,  except  the 
Roome  be  kept  Cleare,  and  Neat. 

"  For  Justs  and  Tourneys,  and  Barriers  j  The  Glories  of 
them,  are  chiefly  in  the  Chariots,  wherein  the  Challengers 
make  their  Entry;  Especially  if  they  be  drawne  with  Strange 
Beasts ;  As  Lions,  Beares,  Cammels,  and  the  like  ;  Or  in  the 
Devices  of  their  Entrance ;  Or  in  the  Bravery  of  their  Liver- 
ies; Or  in  the  Goodly  Furniture  of  their  Horses,  and  Armour, 
But  enough  of  these  Toyes." 


CHAPTER    II. 

Instruments  Mentioned  by  Shakespeare  —  "  Consorts  "  —  Fifes  — 
Viols  —  The  Recorders  —  The  Bagpipe. 

The  preceding  chapter  has  shown  that,  although 
England  had  not,  as  yet,  the  Italian  development  of 
orchestra,1  it  possessed  a  fair  knowledge  of  concerted 
music,  and  used  combinations  of  instruments.  These 
combinations  were  called  "  consorts."  Shakespeare 
alludes  to  them  in  "  Romeo  and  Juliet,"  when  Tybalt 
and  Mercutio  meet  (Act  iii.  Sc.  i). 

"  Tybalt.     Mercutio,  thou  consort'st  with  Romeo. 

Mercutio.  Consort ! 2  what,  dost  thou  make  us  minstrels  ?  an 
thou  make  minstrels  of  us,  look  to  hear  nothing  but  discords : 
here's  my  fiddlestick ;  here's  that  shall  make  you  dance. 
Zounds,  consort ! " 

One  finds  here  the  usual  Shakespearian  pun,  and 
also  a  subtle  reference  to  the  low  caste  of  the  musi- 
cian  in   this   epoch    (whereof    more   hereafter),  for 

1 "  L'  Anima  e  nel  Corpo,"  the  first  oratorio  (Rome,  1600),  had  a 
double  lyre,  a  harpsichord,  a  large  guitar,  and  two  flutes,  as  or- 
chestra. "Euridice,"  the  oldest  opera  extant  (1600),  had  a  com- 
bination of  harpsichord,  large  guitar,  viol,  large  lute,  flute,  and  a 
triple  flute.  ^ 

*  "  Consorts  n  were  often  mentioned  by  Milton. 

25 


26  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Mercutio  is  mightily  indignant  at  the  minstrel  impu- 
tation —  or  pretends  to  be. 

At  the  outset  we  must  accustom  ourselves  to  the 
fact  that  Shakespeare  makes  but  few  attempts  to 
picture  the  country  in  which  his  scene  is  laid.  Musi- 
cians were  not  despised  in  Verona,  where  Romeo 
and  Juliet  reside,  but  the  poet  is  picturing  London 
instead,  and  he  presents  the  contemporary  English 
life,  whether  the  scene  be  laid  in  Bohemia,  Denmark, 
Italy,  or  elsewhere. 

The  "  consorts "  of  Shakespeare's  time  were  not 
only  concerted  music,  but  generally  composed  of  such 
instruments  as  belonged  to  one  family.  If,  for 
example,  only  viols  were  employed,  the  consort  was 
called  "whole,"  but  if  virginal,  lute,  or  flute,  came 
into  the  combination,  the  result  was  a  "  broken  con- 
sort," or  "  broken  music,"  which  Shakespeare  alludes 
to  more  than  once,  and  which  will  be  described  in 
connection  with  Shakespeare's  technical  terms. 

Viols  were  most  employed  in  these  "consorts," 
and  were  generally  sold  to  music-lovers  in  "  sets,"  so 
that  a  "chest  of  viols"  usually  consisted  of  six 
pieces :  two  trebles,  two  tenor  viols,  and  two  basses. 
The  violin  was  not  among  these,  nor  the  contrabass. 
The  golden  epoch  of  violin-making  began  nearly  fifty 
years  after  Shakespeare's  death  ;  Stradivarius,  Amati, 
Guarnerius,  the  kings  of  violin-making,  all  came 
later,  and  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century 


rr 


ARTIST  PLAYING   VIOL  DA   GAMBA. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  2J 

the  violin  was  looked  upon  in  England  as  rather  a 
vulgar  instrument.  Even  in  the  eighteenth  century 
Stradivarius  had  an  invoice  of  violins,  which  he  had 
sent  to  England,  returned  to  him  with  the  information 
that  London  was  not  accustomed  to  paying  as  much 
as  five  pounds  for  a  violin ! 

The  viols  alluded  to  above  had  generally  six  strings 
each,  and  were  fretted,  like  a  guitar.  We  present 
herewith  a  picture  (taken  from  a  contemporaneous 
print)  of  the  viol  da  gamba  of  Shakespeare's  time, 
and  need  only  add  that  the  treble  viol  was  just  half 
the  size,  while  the  tenor  stood  between  the  two  in 
size  and  compass. 

The  contrabass  existed  in  England  at  this  time, 
but  was  called  the  "  violone ;  "  the  word  "  violon- 
cello" is  a  derivative  of  this,  meaning  the  "little 
violone."  One  of  the  curious  musical  conceits  of 
the  Elizabethan  days  was  to  cut  a  door  in  the  back 
of  the  violone  and  introduce  a  small  boy  into  the  in- 
strument ;  at  the  concert  the  contrabass  player  would 
render  the  bass  part  on  his  instrument,  would  sing 
the  "mean,"  or  middle  part,  and  the  invisible  boy 
would  add  a  treble,  —  a  trio  with  but  one  performer 
in  sight. 

Many  are  the  allusions  to  the  viols  in  Shakespeare's 
works.  In  "Twelfth  Night"  (Act  i.  Sc.  3),  Maria 
calls  Sir  Andrew  Aguecheek  "  a  fool  and  a  prodigal," 
whereupon  Sir  Toby  Belch  defends  him  with : 


28  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

"  Fye,  that  you'll  say  so  !  he  plays  o'  the  viol-de-gamboys, 
and  speaks  three  or  four  languages  word  for  word  without 
book,  and  hath  all  the  good  gifts  of  nature." 

It  was  therefore  part  of  a  liberal  education  to  play 
upon  the  viols ;  in  fact,  many  a  wealthy  gentleman 
kept  his  chest  of  viols  at  hand  for  guests  to  divert 
themselves  with  music. 

Pericles  (Act  i.  Sc.  i),  addressing  the  daughter  of 
Antiochus,  says  : 

"  You're  a  fair  viol,  and  your  sense  the  strings ; 
Who,  finger'd  to  make  man  his  lawful  music, 
Would  draw  heaven  down,  and  all  the  gods  to  hearken ; 
But,  being  play'd  upon  before  your  time, 
Hell  only  danceth  at  so  harsh  a  chime  : 
Good  sooth,  I  care  not  for  you," 

comparing  unruly  passions  to  disordered  viol  music. 
The  Duke  of  Norfolk  (in  «  Richard  II.,"  Act  i.  Sc. 
3),  upon  hearing  his  sentence  of  banishment,  bursts 
forth : 

"  A  heavy  sentence,  my  most  sovereign  liege, 
And  one  unlook'd  for  from  your  highness'  mouth : 
A  dearer  merit,  not  so  deep  a  maim 
As  to  be  cast  forth  in  the  common  air, 
Have  I  deserved  at  your  highness'  hand. 
The  language  I  have  learned  these  forty  years, 
My  native  English,  now  I  must  forego : 
And  now  my  tongue's  use  is  to  me  no  more, 
Than  an  unstringed  viol  or  a  harp ; 
Or  like  a  cunning  instrument  cased  up, 
Or,  being  open,  put  into  his  hands, 
That  knows  no  touch  to  tune  the  harmony." 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  29 

While  England  devoted  itself  to  the  viols,  the  vio- 
lins had  made  some  headway  in  France.  This  fact 
is  alluded  to  somewhat  scornfully  by  our  poet  in 
"Henry  VIII."  (Act  i.  Sc.  3),  where  Lovell  says: 
"A  French  song  and  a  fiddle  has  no  fellow,"  and 
Sands  replies,  "  The  devil  fiddle  them  !  " 

In  "  Coriolanus  "  (Act  v.  Sc.  4),  at  the  entrance  of 
the  messenger,  we  find  a  varied  list  of  instruments  : 

"  Why,  hark  you 
{Trumpets  and  hautboys  sounded,  a?id  drums 
beate?i,  all  together.     Shouting  also  withinj] 
The  trumpets,  sackbuts,  psalteries,  and  fifes, 
Tabors,  and  cymbals,  and  the  shouting  Romans, 
Make  the  sun  dance.     Hark  you  ! 

\_Shouting  again.  ]  " 

It  is  almost  needless  to  say  that  the  ancient 
Romans  did  not  indulge  in  sackbuts  (slide  trom- 
bones) nor  psalteries.  Regarding  the  latter  instru- 
ment, we  find  the  following  definition  in  Grassineau's 
Dictionary  (1740) : 

"  That  now  in  use  is  a  flat  instrument  in  form  of  a  tra- 
pezium, or  triangle  truncated  atop.  It  is  strung  with  thirteen 
wire  chords  set  to  unison  and  octave,  and  mounted  on  two 
bridges  on  the  two  sides.  It  is  struck  with  a  plectrum,  or 
little  iron  rod,  or  sometimes  with  a  little  crooked  stick,  whence 
'tis  usually  ranked  among  the  instruments  of  percussion.  Its 
chest,  or  body,  resembles  that  of  a  spinet." 

It  was  therefore  a  species  of  dulcimer,  or  what  the 
Germans  call  a  Sch^ag-Zither. 


30  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

The  fife  is  mentioned  more  than  once  in  the 
Shakespearian  dramas.  In  "  The  Merchant  of  Ven- 
ice "   (Act  ii.  Sc.   5),  Shylock  cries  out  to  Jessica  : 

"  What !  are  there  masques  ?     Hear  you  me,  Jessica : 
Lock  up  my  doors :  and  when  you  hear  the  drum, 
And  the  vile  squeaking  of  the  wry-neck'd  fife, 
Clamber  not  you  up  to  the  casement,  then, 
Nor  thrust  your  head  into  the  public  street, 
To  gaze  on  Christian  fools  with  varnish 'd  faces ; 
But  stop  mine  house's  ears,  —  I  mean,  my  casements : 
Let  not  the  sound  of  shallow  foppery  enter 
My  sober  house." 

The  "wry-necked  fife"  has  been  the  occasion  of 

considerable  critical  comment.  Edward  W.  Naylor, 

in  his  excellent  "  Shakespeare  and  Music"  (p.  i5i), 
suggests  that  —  * 

"  The  adjective  '  wry-necked '  refers,  not  to  the  instrument 
itself,  which  was  straight,  but  to  the  player,  whose  head  has 
to  be  slightly  twisted  around  to  get  at  the  mouth-piece.  Mer- 
sennus  (b.  1588)  says  the  fife  is  the  same  as  the  tibia 
Helvetica,  which  was  simply  a  small  edition  of  the  flauto 
traverso,  or  German  flute.  That  is,  the  fife  of  those  days 
was  much  the  same  as  the  modern  fife  of  the  cheaper  kind, 
with  the  usual  six  holes,  and  a  big  hole  near  the  stopped  end, 
where  the  breath  was  applied.  The  instrument  was  therefore 
held  across  (traverso)  the  face  of  the  player,  whose  head 
would  be  turned  sideways,  and  hence  comes  Shylock's  de- 
scription of  it  as  the  «  wry-necked '  fife." 

Some  editions  have  "squeaking,"  changed  to 
"  squealing,"  which,  as  Richard  Grant  White  points 


Shylock.  —  "  Lock  up  7ny  doors  :   and  when  you  hear  the 
drtimy 

%  (Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  ii.  Sc.  5.) 

From  the  painting  by  R.  Smirke. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  3 1 

out,  is  a  more  appropriate  word  in  this  connection. 
The  very  word  "  wry-necked  M  was  used  by  another 
writer  in  the  time  of  Shakespeare.  A  pertinent 
passage  from  Barnaby  Rich's  "Aphorisms"  (1618), 
quoted  by  Boswell,  runs  :  "  The  Fife  is  a  wry-necked 
musician,  for  he  looks  away  from  his  instrument." 
But  the  old  fife  itself  had  a  sufficiently  crooked 
mouthpiece  to  be  described  as  "wry-necked."  Both 
Knight  and  R.  G.  White  think  that  the  instrument 
itself  was  meant,  and  Knight  suggests  that  it  may 
be  an  imitation  of  the  lines  of  Horace,  — 

"  Prima  nocte  domum  claude ;  neque  in  vias, 
Sub  cantu  querulae  despice  Tibia,"  — 

which  certainly  refers  to  the  instrument  and  not  to 
the  musician.  We  think,  since  the  adjective  can  be 
applied  both  to  the  instrument  and  its  player,  that 
the  more  evident  meaning  may  be  adhered  to. 

In  "  Much  Ado  About  Nothing "  (Act  ii.  Sc.  3) 
Benedick  speaks  of  the  fife  as  less  refined  than  the 
pipe.  In  reading  the  passage  one  thinks  uncon- 
sciously upon  Othello's  rougher  delight  in  "the 
spirit-stirring  drum  and  ear-piercing  fife."  Bene- 
dick's soliloquy  runs : 

"  I  do  much  wonder,  that  one  man,  seeing  how  much  an- 
other man  is  a  fool  when  he  dedicates  his  behaviours  to  love, 
will,  after  he  hath  laughed  at  such  shallow  follies  in  others, 
become  the  argument  of  his  own  scorn,  by  falling  in  love : 
And  such  a  man  is  Cla^dio.     I  have  known,  when  there  was 


r, 


32  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

no  music  with  him  but  the  drum  and  fife ;  and  now  had  he 
rather  hear  the  tabor  and  the  pipe." 

Somewhat  akin  to  the  fife,  but  a  more  developed 
instrument,  was  the  recorder.  This  was  a  straight 
flute,  with  a  mouthpiece  very  like  that  of  the  flageo- 
let (see  illustration).  Bacon's  description  of  it,  in 
the  preceding  chapter,  presents  rather  a  primitive 
instrument ;  yet  it  was  preferred  in  England  to  the 
German  flute,  our  modern  instrument. 

Shakespeare  draws  one  of  his  finest  metaphors 
from  this  instrument.  In  "  Hamlet "  (Act  hi.  Sc.  2), 
when  Guildenstern  and  Rosencrantz  are  spying  upon 
the  prince,  Hamlet  suddenly  turns  upon  them  with 
a  musical  sarcasm. 

"  Enter  the  Players,  with  Recorders. 

Hamlet.  O,  the  recorders :  —  let  me  see  one.  —  To  with- 
draw with  you.  —  Why  do  you  go  about  to  recover  the  wind  of 
me,  as  if  you  would  drive  me  into  a  toil  ? 

Guildenstern.  O,  my  lord,  if  my  duty  be  too  bold,  my  love 
is  too  unmannerly. 

Hamlet.  I  do  not  well  understand  that.  Will  you  play 
upon  this  pipe  ? 

Guildenstern.     My  lord,  I  cannot. 

Hamlet.     I  pray  you. 

Guildenstern.     Believe  me,  I  cannot. 

Hamlet.     I  do  beseech  you. 

Guildenstern.     I  know  no  touch  of  it,  my  lord. 

Hamlet.  'Tis  as  easy  as  lying :  govern  these  ventages  with 
your  fingers  and  thumb,  give  it  breath  with  your  mouth,  and 
it  will  discourse  most  eloquent  music.  Look  you,  these  are 
the  stops. 


GENTLEMAN  PLAYING  RECORDER. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.        •  33 

t 

Guildenstem.  But  these  cannot  I  command  to  any  utter- 
ance of  harmony ;  I  have  not  the  skill. 

Ha?nlet.  Why,  look  you  now,  how  unworthy  a  thing  you 
make  of  me.  You  would  play  upon  me ;  you  would  seem  to 
know  my  stops ;  you  would  pluck  out  the  heart  of  my  mystery ; 
you  would  sound  me  from  my  lowest  note  to  the  top  of  my 
compass:  and  there  is  much  music,  excellent  voice  in  this 
little  organ ;  yet  cannot  you  make  it  speak.  S'blood,  do  you 
think,  I  am  easier  to  be  played  on  than  a  pipe  ?  Call  me  what 
instrument  you  will,  though  you  can  fret  me,  you  cannot  play 
upon  me." 


It  is  possible,  in  Benedick's  allusion  to  "tabor 
and  pipe,"  above  given,  that  the  recorder  was  meant, 
for  the  word  "  pipe  "  was  used  in  as  general  a  sense, 
in  Shakespeare's  time,  as  "  tibia  "  among  the  ancient 
Romans,  —  many  instruments  were  embraced  in  the 
term.  The  technical  points  in  the  scene  in  "  Ham- 
let "  are  quite  correct ;  the  thumb  was  used,  as  the 
poet  indicates ;  the  change  of  metaphor  from  the 
recorder  to  "  what  instrument  you  will "  is  evidently 
done  to  allow  the  obvious  pun  on  the  word  "  fret," 
for,  of  course,  frets  would  only  be  found  on  stringed 
instruments. 

A  more  legitimate  pun  upon  the  recorder  is  found 
in  "Midsummer  Night's  Dream"  (Act  v.  Sc.  i), 
after  the  Prologue  of  "  Py ramus  and  Thisbe  "  has 
muddled  all  his  punctuation  : 

"  Theseus.     This  fellow  does  not  stand  upon  points. 
Lysander.     He  hath  rid  his  prologue  like  a  rough  colt ;  he 
knows  not  the  stop.     V 


34  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Hippolyta.  Indeed  he  hath  played  on  this  prologue  like  a 
child  on  a  recorder,  a  sound,  but  not  in  government." 

There  is  genuine  humour  in  each  of  the  three 
speeches,  and  the  suggestion  of  the  sound  being 
right  and  the  sense  wrong,  like  a  child  playing  an 
instrument,  is  charmingly  dainty  and  feminine. 
•  The  bagpipe  was  too  characteristic  an  instrument 
for  Shakespeare  to  pass  by,  and  we  find  several 
allusions  to  it  in  the  plays.  Musicians  may  affect 
disdain  of  this  instrument  as  much  as  they  please,  yet 
no  musical  instrument  is  so  interwoven  with  history 
as  the  bagpipe.  Every  European  nation  seems  to 
have  used  it  in  ancient  times,  and  the  fact  that  in 
Italy  there  is  a  bagpipe  called  "zumpogna,"  an  evi- 
dent derivation  from  the  Greek  sumphoniat  would 
indicate  that  the  Hellenic  music,  which  is  so  ecstat- 
ically praised  by  the  ancient  writers,  may  have  pos- 
sessed the  bagpipe  drone  occasionally. 

Shakespeare  alludes  to  a  local  bagpipe  in  the  first 
part  of  "  Henry  IV."  (Act  i.  Sc.  2). 

"  Falstaff.     S 'blood  !  I  am  as  melancholy  as  a  gib  cat,  or  a 
lugged  bear. 

Prince  Henry.     Or  an  old  lion ;  or  a  lover's  lute. 
Falstaff.     Yea,  or  the  drone  of  a  Lincolnshire  bagpipe." 

Steevens  thought  that  "a  Lincolnshire  bagpipe" 
was  only  a  jesting  allusion  to  frogs  croaking  in  the 
marshes,  but  Malone  set  this  error  right  by  quoting 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  35 

the  following  from  "A  Nest  of  Ninnies,"  by  Robert 
Armin  (1608) : 

"  At  a  Christmas-time,  when  great  logs  furnish  the  hall  fire  : 
when  brawne  is  in  season,  and  indeed  all  revelling  is  regarded ; 
this  gallant  knight  kept  open  house  for  all  commers,  were  beefe, 
beere  and  bread  was  no  niggard.  Amongst  all  the  pleasures 
provided,  a  noyse  of  minstrells  and  a  Lincolnshire  bagpipe 
was  prepared ;  the  minstrells  for  the  great  chamber,  the  bag- 
pipe for  the  hall ;  the  minstrells  to  serve  up  the  knights'  meate, 
and  the  bagpipe  for  the  common  dauncing." 

Richard  Grant  White  scoffingly  says :  "  It  is  im- 
possible to  believe  that  the  drone  of  any  one  bagpipe 
could  be  more  melancholy  than  that  of  any  other." 
Nevertheless,  there  must  have  been  some  peculiar 
quality  about  this  instrument  to  make  two  authors 
specify  it  by  name. 

Another  allusion  to  the  bagpipe,  by  Shakespeare, 
has  also  puzzled  many  commentators.  Shylock 
("Merchant  of  Venice,"  Act  iv.  Sc.  1)  twice  alludes 
to  the  instrument  (an  allusion  quite  out  of  place  in 
Venice),  the  second  time  speaking  of  a  "  woollen  bag- 
pipe." Naylor  passes  this  by  with  the  question, 
"  What  is  a  *  woollen  bagpipe  '  ?  "  Steevens  thought 
that  "  swollen  bagpipe  "  was  meant ;  Collier's  folio 
of  1632  gives  it  as  "bollen  bagpipe;"  White  thinks 
that  the  adjective  refers  to  the  baize  covering,  which 
is  as  likely  a  solution  as  any. 

The  bagpipe  is  mentioned  by  English  poets  before 


36  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

the  Elizabethan  time.  Even  Chaucer  says  of  his 
miller : 

"  A  baggepipe  coude  wel  he  blowe  and  soune." 

The  Canterbury  pilgrims  are  mentioned  in  the  same 
poem  as  performing  their  journey  to  the  tones  of 
the  same  instrument. 

Cornet  and  serpent  have  already  been  described 
in  the  preceding  chapter.  The  former  is  called  for  in 
some  of  the  stage  directions  of  Shakespeare,  to  which 
we  shall  devote  an  especial  page. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Instruments,  continued  —  The  Virginals  —  A  Musical  Error  —  The 
Sonnets  —  Musical  Mistakes  of  Great  Authors — Queen  Eliza- 
beth and  Her  Virginal  Playing  —  The  Lute  —  Difficulty  of  Tun- 
ing —  Presents  of  Lute  Strings  —  The  Organ. 

One  of  the  most  used  musical  instruments  of  the 
Elizabethan  epoch  was  the  virginals,  a  tiny  and  primi- 
tive piano  on  which  the  strings  were  plucked  by  little 
pieces  of  quill,  set  in  "  jacks."  The  tone  of  the  vir- 
ginals was  faint  and  more  like  a  mandolin  than  any 
other  instrument.  Shading  was  impossible  upon  it ; 
the  player  produced  a  constant,  and  rather  irritating, 
pizzicato,  which  must  have  been  a  deadly  foe  to  any- 
thing like  expression.  Yet  the  instrument  was  very 
popular.  Every  barber's  shop  of  that  time  had  its  lute 
or  its  virginals  (for  the  instrument  was  always  spoken 
of  in  the  plural)  for  the  customers  to  play  upon  while 
awaiting  their  turn  to  be  shaved.1  As  late  as  1666, 
Pepys,  speaking  of  the  great  fire  in  London,  says  : 

"  River  full  of  lighters  and  boats  taking  in  goods,  and  good 
goods  swimming  in  the  water,  and  only  I  observed  that  hardly 

1  In  this  connection  it  may  be  added  that  the  striped  pole  which 
indicates  the  American  barber's  shop  is  derived  from  the  bleeding 
arm  in  a  white  bandage  which  the  old  English  barber-surgeons 
displayed  at  their  doote. 

37 


>r 


38  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

one  lighter  or  boat  in  three,  that  had  the  goods  of  a  house  in, 
but  there  was  a  Pair  of  Virginalls  in  it." 

It  is  singular  that  Shakespeare  only  alludes  to  this 
instrument  once  in  his  plays,  although  here  the  meta- 
phor is  a  fine  one.  It  occurs  in  "  Winter's  Tale  " 
(Act  i.  Sc.  2),  when  the  jealous  Leontes  watches 
his  queen,  Hermione,  with  Polixenes,  and  sees  her 
take  the  Bohemian's  hand,  while  he  angrily  mutters, 
"  Still  virginalling  upon  his  palm." 

The  action  of  the  virginal  player  was  not  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  pianist,  as  will  readily  be  seen 
from  the  accompanying  print  of  the  title-page  of  the 
first  collection  of  virginal  music. 

Perhaps  the  lack  of  allusions  to  the  instrument  in 
Shakespeare  may  be  explained  by  a  peculiar  error 
that  occurs  in  one  of  his  sonnets,  and  which  may 
show  that  he  had  not  a  very  perfect  knowledge  of 
the  instrument.  It  is  a  poem  written  to  the  "dark 
lady,"1  the  128th  sonnet,  and  here,  for  once,  the 
writer  speaks  at  some  length  of  the  musical  instru- 
ment : 

"  How  oft,  when  thou,  my  music,  music  play'st, 
Upon  that  blessed  wood  whose  motion  sounds 
With  thy  sweet  fingers,  when  thou  gently  sway'st, 
The  wiry  concord  that  mine  ear  confounds, 

1  Possibly  Mrs.  Fytton,  who  was  Lord  Pembroke's  mistress.  Th« 
Earl  of  Pembroke  was  William  Herbert  ("  W.  H."),  who  succeeded 
to  the  title  in  1601. 


PARTHEN1A 


or 


THE    MAYDENHEAD 
of  the  first  musicke  that 

our  Atas jwirfafjcr  tUcVffigftNJiLLS 
s     r  (IMPOSED 

GcniiiiwjfhuMj, .  wstS&ttril*  (fyfc-7 


fom&firjl  ^r.t'tms.^mtpmt^.^fffe.J^r]f- 


TITLE-PAGE    OF    "  PARTHENIA. 
\ 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  39 

Do  I  envy  those  jacks,  that  nimble  leap 

To  kiss  the  tender  inward  of  thy  hand, 
Whilst  my  poor  lips,  which  should  that  harvest  reap, 

At  the  wood's  boldness  by  thee  blushing  stand ! 
To  be  so  tickled,  they  would  change  their  state 

And  situation  with  those  dancing  chips, 
O'er  whom  thy  fingers  walk  with  gentle  gait, 

Making  dead  wood  more  bless'd  than  living  lips. 
Since  saucy  jacks  so  happy  are  in  this, 
Give  them  thy  fingers,  me  thy  lips  to  kiss." 

The  fifth  line  is  here  a  puzzle  and  possibly  an  error. 
It  is  not  the  odd  accent  on  the  third  word,  for 
"envy"  was  sometimes  pronounced  "en^"  in 
Shakespeare's  time,  but  the  "jacks"  of  the  instru- 
ment could  by  no  means  leap  to  kiss  the  lady's  hand, 
any  more  than  the  hammers  of  the  piano  of  the 
present  could  touch  the  fingers  of  a  Paderewski. 
The  same  error,  it  will  be  noted,  occurs  in  the  final 
lines  of  the  sonnet. 

Shakespeare  is  not  the  only'poet  of  the  time  who 
used  the  virginal  jacks  for  a  metaphor,  but  none  of 
his  contemporaries  speak  of  the  hand  and  the  jack 
coming  near  each  other. 

Lord  Oxford  satirically  wrote  (or  said),  referring  to 

Raleigh's  favour  at  court  and  the  execution  of  Essex  : 

"  When  *  Jacks  '  start   up,  heads  go  down  !  "     Mid- 

dleton,  in  his  "  Father  Hubbard's  Tales,"  describes 

the  frozen  Charity  with  : 

"  Her  teeth  chattered  in  her  head  and  leaped  up  and  down 
Like  virginal  jacks.N 


40  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Dekker,  in  "  Satiro-Mastix,  or  the  Untrussing  of  the 
Humourous  Poet"  (published  in  1602),  says: 

"  Lord  ha'  mercy  upon  us !  we  women  fall  and  fall  still ; 
and  when  we  have  husbands,  we  play  upon  them  like  virginal 
jacks,  they  must  rise  and  fall  to  our  humours,  or  else  they'll 
never  get  any  good  strains  of  music  out  of  us." 

Yet  we  may  acknowledge  that  the  word  "jack"  may 
have  been  substituted  for  "key,"  in  the  sonnet,  either 
by  poetic  license  or  by  carelessness. 

We  shall  find  one  or  two  other  musical  slips  in  our 
poet,  in  the  course  of  these  chapters,  but  they  can- 
not detract  from  the  tremendous  amount  of  musical 
knowledge  displayed,  nor  from  the  glorious  enthusi- 
asm with  which  the  poet  has  gilded  our  art.  We 
may  recall,  in  this  connection,  that  another  most 
musical  poet,  Browning,  in  his  "Toccata  of  Martini 
Galuppi,"  speaks  of  — 

"  Sixths,  diminished,  sigh  on  sigh." 

There  happen  to  be  two  horns  to  this  last  dilemma. 
While  Richter  and  some  other  harmonists  do  not  re- 
cognise the  diminished  sixth,  Albrechtsberger  (the 
teacher  of  Beethoven),  in  the  eighteenth  division  of 
his  great  theoretical  book,  both  recognises  the  chord 
of  the  diminished  sixth  and  gives  an  example.  But 
he  speaks  of  it  as  very  rare,  nor  do  we  discover  such 
intervals  "  sigh  on  sigh  "  in  Galuppi's  works,  and,  as 
the  diminished  sixth  is  an  enharmonic  change  of  the 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  4 1 

perfect  fifth,  a  succession  of  them  would  produce 
something  very  like  consecutive  fifths,  which  Ga- 
luppi  would  have  held  a  crime,  although  Bach  is 
not  altogether  innocent  of  them. 

Tennyson  has  given  us  a  combination  (in  "  Maud  ") 
of  "flute,  violin,  bassoon,"  that  would  not  please 
the  teacher  of  orchestration,  and  a  fairly  long  list 
of  the  musical  errors  of  poets  and  of  novelists  might 
be  made  out ;  but  it  will  be  readily  perceived  that 
the  Shakespeare  and  the  Browning  errors  (if  they 
are  such)  can  be  readily  defended. 

But  the  sparse  allusions  that  Shakespeare  has 
made  to  the  virginals  are  the  more  to  be  wondered 
at  when  it  is  recalled  that  his  patroness  and  frequent 
auditor,  Queen  Elizabeth,  loved  the  instrument  and 
was  very  proud  of  her  skill  upon  it.1  Her  pride  in 
this  matter  once  led  Sir  James  Melvil,  the  ambas- 
sador from  the  Scottish  queen,  into  rather  an  awk- 
ward position.  He  thus  speaks  of  the  incident  in 
his  "Memoirs  :" 

"  The  same  day  after  dinner,  my  Lord  of  Hunsden  drew  me 
up  to  a  quiet  gallery  that  I  might  hear  some  music  (but  he  said 
he  durst  not  avow  it),  where  I  might  hear  the  queen  play  upon 
the  virginals.  After  I  had  hearkened  awhile  I  took  by  the 
tapestry  that  hung  by  the  door  of  the  chamber,  and  seeing  her 
back  was  toward  the  door,  I  entered  within  the  chamber,  and 

1  Spite  of  Elizabeth's  parade  of  her  love  of  music,  it  must  be 
stated  that  she  was  extremely  parsimonious  to  her  band  of 
musicians.  v 


42  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

stood  a  pretty  space,  hearing  her  play  excellently  well ;  but  she 
left  off  immediately  so  soon  as  she  turned  her  about  and  saw 
me.  She  appeared  to  be  surprised  to  see  me,  and  came  for- 
ward, seeming  to  strike  me  with  her  hand,  alleging  she  was 
not  used  to  play  before  men,  but  when  she  was  solitary,  to  shun 
melancholy.  She  asked  how  I  came  there  ?  I  answered,  as  I 
was  walking  with  my  Lord  Hunsden,  as  we  passed  by  the 
chamber  door,  I  heard  such  a  melody  as  ravished  me,  whereby 
I  was  drawn  in  ere  I  knew  how ;  excusing  my  fault  of  homeli- 
ness as  being  brought  up  in  the  court  of  France  where  such 
freedom  was  allowed ;  declaring  myself  willing  to  endure  what 
kind  of  punishment  her  Majesty  should  be  pleased  to  inflict 
upon  me  for  so  great  offence.  Then  she  sate  down  low  upon  a 
cushion,  and  I  upon  my  knees  by  her ;  but  with  her  own  hand 
she  gave  me  a  cushion  to  lay  under  my  knee ;  which  at  first  I 
refused,  but  she  compelled  me  to  take  it.  She  inquired  whether 
my  queen  or  she  played  best.  In  that  I  found  myself  obliged 
to  give  her  the  praise." 

Melvil  was  ambassador  from  Mary  Stuart  in  1564, 
and  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  the  neat 
little  comedy  described  above  had  been  quietly  ar- 
ranged by  Queen  Elizabeth  herself,  for  our  diplomat 
informs  us  that,  before  the  stolen  musical  interview, 
she  had  asked  him  many  questions  about  his  queen : 
How  she  dressed  ?  what  was  the  colour  of  her  hair  ? 
whether  that,  or  hers,  was  best  ?  which  of  the  two 
was  fairest  ?  which  was  higher  in  stature  ?  Melvil 
describes  the  first  interview  thus : 

"Then  she  asked  what  kind  of  exercises  she  used?  I  an- 
swered that  when  I  received  my  despatch  the  queen  was  lately 
come  from  the  Highland  hunting:  that  when  her  more  serious 
affairs  permitted,  she  was  taken  up  with  the  reading  of  his- 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


43 


tories :  that  sometimes  she  recreated  herself  in  playing  upon 
the  lute  and  virginals.  She  asked  if  she  played  well  ?  I  said, 
reasonably  for  a  queen." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  just  what  Queen 
Elizabeth  played  for  the  bold  ambassador.  There  is 
a  piece  of  virginal  music  extant  which  was  an  especial 
favourite  with  the  queen,  and  was,  in  fact,  arranged 
for  her,  from  an  old  English  melody,  by  her  own 
music-teacher,  Doctor  Byrd.  It  was  called  "  Sel- 
linger's  Round,"  and  is  probably  one  of  the  oldest 
English  country  dances  extant.  The  name  was 
probably  "St.  Leger's  Round  "  originally,  and  it  was 
also  called  "The  Beginning  of  the  World"  in  its 
early  days.  We  append  a  copy  of  this  as  Queen 
Elizabeth  played  it  on  the  virginals. 

SELLINGER'S   ROUND. 

As  played  by  Queen  Elizabeth.  Harmonies  by  Dr.  Byrd. 

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Rivalling  the  virginals  in  popular  favour,  and  far 
superior  to  it  in  musical  effect,  was  the  lute.  The 
lute  came  into  Europe  in  the  middle  ages  from  Spain, 
where  the  Moors  used  the  instrument,  applying  to  it 
the  Arabic  name  "Al  ud."  Many  were  the  modifi- 
cations of  this  instrument.  We  give  a  reproduction 
of  an  old  print  of  a  lute- player  with  his  instrument, 
but  there  were  many  other  kinds  used  at  the  same 


GENTLEMAN   PLAYING   LUTB. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  45 

epoch ;  one  sort  possessed  a  number  of  open,  harp- 
like strings,  in  addition  to  the  fretted,  or  guitar-like 
ones,  and  this  instrument  was  particularly  difficult  to 
set  in  tune  and  required  retuning  at  each  change  of 
key. 

If  Shakespeare  neglected  the  virginals,  he  made  up 
for  it  by  many  allusions  to,  and  metaphors  founded 
upon,  its  rival,  the  lute. 

"  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  "  is  classed  by  some 
commentators  as  among  the  "doubtful  plays,"  but 
few  refuse  to  recognise  the  hand  of  Shakespeare  in 
some  of  its  subtle  touches,  and  nowhere  are  these 
more  evident  than  in  the  musical  scenes.  In  the  first 
of  these  (Act  ii.  Sc.  I),  we  find  Katharine  venting 
her  furious  temper  upon  her  music-teacher,  —  the 
disguised  lover  of  Bianca,  —  Hortensio  : 

"  Re-enter  Hortensio,  with  his  head  broken. 

Baptista.     How  now,  my  friend?  why  dost  thou  look  so 
pale  ? 

Hortensio.     For  fear,  I  promise  you,  if  I  look  pale. 

Baptista.    What,  will  my  daughter  prove  a  good  musician  ? 

Hortensio.     I  think  she'll  sooner  prove  a  soldier  ; 
Iron  may  hold  her,  but  never  lutes. 

Baptista.     Why,  then  thou  canst  not  break  her  to  the  lute  ? 

Hortensio.     Why,  no ;  for  she  hath  broke  the  lute  to  me. 
I  did  but  tell  her  she  mistook  her  frets, 
And  bow'd  her  hand  to  teach  her  fingering ; 
When,  with  a  most  impatient  devilish  spirit, 
<  Frets  call  you  these  ?  '  quoth  she,  '  I'll  fume  with  them :  ■ 
And,  with  that  word,  Hie  struck  me  on  the  head, 


46  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

And  through  the  instrument  my  pate  made  way ; 

And  there  I  stood  amazed  for  a  while, 

As  on  a  pillory,  looking  through  the  lute : 

While  she  did  call  me,  —  rascal  fiddler, 

And  —  twangling  Jack,  with  twenty  such  vile  terms, 

As  she  had  studied  to  misuse  me  so. 

Petruchio.     Now,  by  the  world,  it  is  a  lusty  wench ; 
I  love  her  ten  times  more  than  ere  I  did : 
O,  how  I  long  to  have  some  chat  with  her  ! 

Baptista.     Well,  go  with  me,  and  be  not  so  discomfited : 
Proceed  in  practice  with  my  younger  daughter  ; 
She's  apt  to  learn,  and  thankful  for  good  turns,  — 
Signior  Petruchio,  will  you  go  with  us ; 
Or  shall  I  send  my  daughter  Kate  to  you  ? 

Petruchio.     I  pray  you  do,  I  will  attend  her  here,  — 

[Exeunt  Baptista,  Gremzo,  Tramo,  and  Hortensia 
And  woo  her  with  some  spirit  when  she  comes. 
Say,  that  she  rail,  —  why,  then  I'll  tell  her  plain, 
She  sings  as  sweetly  as  a  nightingale ; 
Say,  that  she  frown,  —  I'll  say,  she  looks  as  clear 
As  morning  roses  newly  wash'd  with  dew ; 
Say,  she  be  mute,  and  will  not  speak  a  word,  — 
Then,  I'll  commend  her  volubility, 
And  say  —  she  uttered  piercing  eloquence ; 
If  she  do  bid  me  pack,  I'll  give  her  thanks, 
As  though  she  bid  me  stay  by  her  a  week : 
If  she  deny  to  wed,  I'll  crave  the  day 
When  I  shall  ask  the  banns,  and  when  be  married.  --— 
But  here  she  comes;  and  now,  Petruchio,  speak." 

We  have  quoted  the  last  sentence  of  this  scene  for 
a  purpose  aside  from  the  immediate  examination  of 
the  lute.  Shakespeare  has  induced  myriads  of  musical 
settings   (some  of  which  we  shall  examine  in  their 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  47 

proper  place),  but  seldom  have  the  poet's  words 
undergone  such  a  startling  transformation  as  the 
phrases  of  Petruchio,  altered  to  fit  a  female  singer, 
and  made  into  a  dainty  soprano  song  by  Sir  Henry 
Bishop.     Here  is  the  modern  version  : 

"  Should  he  upbraid,  I'll  own  that  he  prevail, 
And  sing  as  sweetly  as  the  nightingale. 
Say  that  he  frown,  I'll  say  his  looks  I  view, 
As  morning  roses  newly  tipped  with  dew. 
Say  he  be  mute,  I'll  answer  with  a  smile, 
And  dance  and  play,  and  wrinkled  Care  beguile." 

And  the  above  rhymes  are  ticketed  as  being  "by 
Shakespeare ! " 

To  return  to  the  lute :  the  difficulty  of  tuning  the 
instrument,  and  the  time  consumed  in  its  constant 
retuning  at  changes  of  key,  can  scarcely  be  exagger- 
ated. Mattheson  (about  1720)  wrote  of  the  instru- 
ment :  "  If  a  lute-player  have  lived  eighty  years,  he 
has  probably  spent  about  sixty  years  tuning  his 
instrument !  "  This  defect  in  the  instrument  is  excel- 
lently delineated  in  the  scene  where  Hortensio,  dis- 
guised as  a  music-teacher,  seeks  to  drive  away 
Lucentio  (disguised  as  a  Latin  teacher)  from  the  side 
of  Bianca,  that  he  may  give  his  lesson  ("  Taming 
of  the  Shrew,"  Act  hi.  Sc.  1). 

"  Enter  Lucentio,  Hortensio,  and  Bianca. 
Lucentio.     Fiddler,  forbear;  you  grow  too  forward,  sir; 
Have  you  so  soon  forgot  the  entertainment 
Her  sister  Katharine  Welcomed  you  withal? 


48  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Hortensio.     But,  wrangling  pedant,  this  is 
The  patroness  of  heavenly  harmony  : 
Then  give  me  leave  to  have  prerogative ; 
And  when  in  music  we  have  spent  an  hour, 
Your  lecture  shall  have  leisure  for  as  much. 

Lucentio.     Preposterous  ass  !  that  never  read  so  far 
To  know  the  cause  why  music  was  ordain'd ! 
Was  it  riot,  to  refresh  the  mind  of  man, 
After  his  studies,  or  his  usual  pain  ? 
Then  give  me  leave  to  read  philosophy. 
And,  while  I  pause,  serve  in  your  harmony. 

Hortensio.     Sirrah,  I  will  not  bear  these  braves  of  thine. 

Bianca.     Why,  gentlemen,  you  do  me  double  wrong, 
To  strive  for  that  which  resteth  in  my  choice : 
I  am  no  breeching  scholar  in  the  schools ; 
I'll  not  be  tied  to  hours,  nor  'pointed  times, 
But  learn  my  lessons  as  I  please  myself, 
And,  to  cut  off  all  strife,  here  sit  we  down ; 
Take  you  your  instrument,  play  you  the  whiles ; 
His  lecture  will  be  done,  ere  you  have  tuned. 

Hortensio.     You'll  leave  his  lecture  when  I  am  in  tune? 

[To  Bianca;  Hortensio  retires. 

Lucentio.     That  will  be  never :  —  tune  your  instrument." 

Lucentio  now  makes  his  declaration  of  love  in 
the  guise  of  a  Latin  lesson,  construing  "  Hac  ibat 
Simois"  from  Ovid  in  the  following  totally  novel 
fashion  : 

"  Bianca.     Where  left  we  last? 

Lucentio.     Here,  madam  :  — 
*  Hac  ibat  Simois;  hie  est  Sigeia  tellus; 
Hie  steterat  Priami  regia  celsa  senis.' 

Bianca.    Construe  them. 

Lucentio.     *  Hac  ibat,'  as   I   told  you   before,  —  'Simois,' 


{/ 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  49 

I  am  Lucentio,  —  'hie  est,'   son  unto  Vincentio  of   Pisa, — 

*  Sigeia  tellus,'  disguised  thus  to  get  your  love,  — '  Hie  stet- 
erat,'  and  that  Lucentio  that  comes  a  wooing,  —  «  Priami,'  is 
my  man  Tranio,  — 'regia,'  bearing  my  port,  —  'celsa  senis,1 
that  we  might  beguile  the  old  Pantaloon. 

Hortensio.     Madam,  my  instrument's  in  tune.     \Returning. 
Bianca.     Let's  hear  :  [Hortensio  plays. 

0  fy !  the  treble  jars. 

Lucentio.     Spit  in  the  hole,  man,  and  tune  again.1 
Bianca.     Now  let  me  see  if  I  can  construe  it :  «  Hac  ibat 
Simois,'  I  know  you  not; —  '  Hie  est  Sigeia  tellus,'  I  trust  you 
not ;  —  ■  Hie  steterat  Priami,'  take  heed  he  hear  us  not ;  — 

*  regia,'  presume  not ;  —  '  celsa  senis,'  despair  not. 

Hortensio.     Madam,  'tis  now  in  tune. 

Lucentio.     All  but  the  bass. 

Hortensio.   The  bass  is  right ;  'tis  the  base  knave  that  jars." 

A  little  later  Hortensio  is  permitted  to  begin  his 
music  lesson,  which  he  does  somewhat  angrily,  say- 
ing to  Lucentio  : 

"  You  may  go  walk,  and  give  me  leave  awhile, 
My  lessons  make  no  music  in  three  parts. 

Lucentio.     Are  you  so  formal,  sir  ?  well,  I  must  wait, 
And  watch  withal ;  for,  but  I  be  deceived, 
Our  fine  musician  groweth  amorous.  \Asi4e. 

Hortensio.     Madam,  before  you  touch  the  instrument, 
To  learn  the  order  of  my  fingering, 

1  must  begin  with  rudiments  of  art : 
To  teach  you  gamut  in  a  briefer  sort, 
More  pleasant,  pithy  and  effectual, 

Than  hath  been  taught  by  any  of  my  trade, 
And  there  it  is  in  writing,, fairly  drawn. 

1  The  "  peg-hole  "  of  the  instrument  is  here  spoken  of ;  a  techni- 
cal point  connected  witXtuning. 


50  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Bianca.     Why  I  am  past  my  gamut  long  ago. 

Hortensio.     Yet  read  the  gamut  of  Hortensio. 

Bianca.     \Reads~\ 
Gamut,1  ■  I  am  the  ground  of  all  accord,' 

A  re,  '  to  plead  Hortensio's  passion  ;  * 
B  mi,  ■  Bianca,  take  him  for  thy  lord,' 

C  fa  ut,  *  that  loves  with  all  affection : ' 
D  sol  re,  '  one  clef  two  notes  have  I ; ' 

E  la  mi,  '  shew  pity  or  I  die.' 
Call  you  this  —  gamut  ?  tut !  I  like  it  not : 
Old  fashions  please  me  best ;  I  am  not  so  nice 
To  change  true  rules  for  odd  inventions." 

At  present  we  are  concerned  but  with  the  intro- 
duction of  the  lute,  and  the  delicate  allusions  to  its 
tuning  difficulties,  but  the  introduction  of  the  gamut 
is  a  vocal  point  which  will  be  touched  upon  in  con- 
nection with  the  songs  in  later  chapters,  and  the 
" lessons  in  three  parts"  are  also  connected  more 
closely  with  the  vocal  than  with  the  instrumental 
side  of  the  subject. 

It  was  not  unnatural  for  Shakespeare  to  use  vocal 
figures  in  the  lute  lesson,  for  the  lute  was  almost 
always  used  as  the  accompaniment  of  song  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries ;  but  the  sol- 
faing  and  the  vocal  gamut  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  instrument  itself ;  in  fact  the  lute  had  a  notation 
of  its  own,  different  from  that  of  other  instruments, 
a  notation  which  has  become  utterly  obsolete  to-day. 

1  See  Chapter  VI.  for  explanation  of  the  vocal  terms  here  used. 


*THE   LUTE -PLAYER. 
From  the  painting  by  A.  Seifert. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  5  I 

In  "Henry  VI."  (Part  I.  Act  i.  Sc.  4)  Shake- 
speare uses  the  lute  as  a  simile  which  deserves  atten- 
tion ;  he  causes  Talbot  to  soothe  the  dying  Salisbury 
with  — 

"  Salisbury,  cheer  thy  spirit  with  this  comfort; 
Thou  shalt  not  die,  whiles  — 
He  beckons  with  his  hand  and  smiles  on  me ; 
As  who  would  say,  '  When  I  am  dead  and  gone, 
Remember  to  avenge  me  on  the  French.'  — 
Plantagenet,  I  will ;  and  Nero-like, 
Play  on  the  lute,  beholding  the  towns  burn : 
Wretched  shall  France  be  only  in  my  name." 

This  is  truer  to  history  than  the  well-known  say- 
ing, "  Nero  fiddled  while  Rome  was  burning,,,  for 
the  Romans  possessed  no  instrument  resembling  the 
fiddle,  but  they  had  some  instruments  akin  to  the 
lute.  In  "Much  Ado  About  Nothing"  (Act  iii. 
Sc.  2)  Claudio  jests  at  Benedick  and  speaks  of  his 
dwindling  spirits  :  "  Nay,  but  his  jesting  spirit ;  which 
is  now  crept  into  a  lute-string,  and  now  governed  by 
stops."  These  are  not  all  of  Shakespeare's  allusions 
to  the  instrument,  but  they  are  the  most  important. 
Occasionally,  as  above,  he  speaks  intelligently  of  the 
strings  of  the  instrument,  apart  from  the  rest,  as,  for 
example,  Cloten's  rough  allusion  in  "  Cymbeline"  (Act 
ii.  Sc.  3),  or  in  the  tent  scene  in  "  Julius  Caesar  "  (Act 
iv.  Sc.  3).  The  lute-strings  were  apt  to  be  present 
in  Shakespeare's  mind  as  separate  from  the  instru< 


52  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

ment,  for  it  was  a  dainty  custom  of  the  Elizabethan 
court  to  make  especial  gifts  of  these.  On  New 
Year's  Day,  many  an  Elizabethan  gallant  would  do 
up  a  packet  of  lute-strings  with  pretty  ribbons,  con- 
ceal a  poem  among  them,  and  send  it  as  a  species 
of  valentine  to  his  lady-love.  The  queen  herself 
greatly  regarded  these  presents,  as  they  became  a 
double  tribute  to  her  personal  attractions  and  her 
musical  abilities. 

A  very  different  use  of  the  lute-string  was  made  by 
the  barbers  in  the  Elizabethan  days.  As  they  were 
often  dentists,  they  would  hang  a  lute-string  fes- 
tooned with  the  teeth  they  had  drawn,  in  their  shop- 
windows.  This  lute-string  was  usually  one  that  had 
been  broken,  by  some  impatient  customer,  while 
playing  the  instrument  that  always  stood  in  their 
shop  for  the  use  of  the  public.  Ben  Jonson  alludes 
to  this  custom,  when,  in  "  The  Silent  Woman  "  (Act 
iii.  Sc.  2),  Truewit  joins  with  Morose  in  cursing  the 
barber,  and  wishes  that  he  may  "  draw  his  own  teeth 
and  add  them  to  the  lute-string  !  "  But  Shakespeare 
does  not  allude  to  this  side  of  lute-string  utility. 

One  of  the  neatest  allusions  to  the  strings  of 
instruments  in  Shakespeare  is  found  in  the  First 
Part  of  "King  Henry  IV."  (Act  ii.  Sc.  4),  where 
Prince  Henry  says,  regarding  his  companionship  with 
the  drawers  (tapsters),  "  I  have  sounded  the  very 
base-string  of  humility."     This  is  not  so  very  unlike 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  53 

the  playful  complaint  that  Chopin  once  made  re- 
garding his  own  delicate  nature  among  coarse  sur- 
roundings. He  said :  "  I  am  a  violin  E  string  on  a 
contrabass ! " 

With  allusions  to  one  other  instrument  (since  it 
is  unnecessary  to  make  a  mere  catalogue  of  instru- 
mental references,  which  can  be  found  in  any  Con- 
cordance) we  leave  this  subject.  In  "  The  Tempest " 
(Act-iv.  Sc.  i)  Alonzo  says : 

"  The  thunder, 
That  deep  and  dreadful  organ  pipe,  pronounced 
The  name  of  Prosper ;  it  did  bass  my  trespass." 

This  simple  sentence  contains  more  than  might 
appear  at  first  sight.  It  shows  how  all  things 
transmuted  themselves  into  poetry  in  that  most 
receptive  and  assimilative  mind.  In  1605,  Thomas 
Dallam  set  up,  in  King's  College,  Cambridge,  the 
first  complete  two-manual  organ  of  England.  In  it 
were  some  tremendous  pedal  pipes,  still  used  (we 
believe)  in  the  deepest  register  of  the  instrument. 
All  England,  or  at  least  the  musical  part  of  it,  was 
interested  in  this  great  instrument.  According  to 
Furnivall,  "  The  Tempest "  was  written  very  soon 
thereafter,  and  consequently  we  find  the  "  deep  and 
dreadful  organ  pipe  "  preserved  to  posterity  in  a  still 
more  imperishable  play. 

In  "King  John '^ there  is  a  less  important  allusion 


54  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

to  the  organ.  Prince  Henry,  on  being  informed  that 
the  dying  king  had  attempted  to  sing,  says  (Act  v. 
Sc.  7) : 

"  'Tis  strange,  that  death  should  sing.  — 
I  am  the  cygnet  to  this  pale  faint  swan, 
Who  chants  a  doleful  hymn  to  his  own  death ; 
And,  from  the  organ-pipe  of  frailty,  sings 
His  soul  and  body  to  their  lasting  rest,"  — 

the  voice  of  the  king  here  being  the  "organ  pipe 
of  frailty." 

In    the    Induction    to    "Henry    IV.,"    Part    II., 
Shakespeare  alludes   to   "a  pipe"  without  specify- 
ing its  kind ;  here,  however,  an  instrument  is  evi- 
dently meant. 
Rumour  speaks : 

"  Rumour  is  a  pipe 
Blown  by  surmises,  jealousies,  conjectures ; 
And  of  so  easy  and  so  plain  a  stop, 
That  the  blunt  monster  with  uncounted  heads, 
The  still-discordant  wavering  multitude, 
Can  play  upon  it." 

Even  the  cases  of  musical  instruments  are  some- 
times spoken  of  by  Shakespeare,  as,  for  example, 
when  the  boy  in  "  Henry  V."  (Act  iii.  Sc.  2)  speaks 
of  the  propensity  of  Falstaffs  followers  to  steal,  even 
at  a  loss,  from  the  mere  habit : 

"  They  will  steal  anything,  and  call  it  purchase.  Bardolph 
stole  a  lute-case,  bore  it  three  leagues  and  sold  it  for  three 
half-pence." 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  55 

Or  FalstafF s  description  of  Shallow  ("  Henry  IV.," 
Part  I.  Act  iii.  Sc.  2),  when  he  says : 

■  The  case  of  a  treble  hautboy  was  a  mansion  for  him,  a 
court." 

In  "Much  Ado  About  Nothing"  (Act  ii.  Sc.  1) 
Hero  says  to  the  masked  Don  Pedro  :  "  God  defend 
that  the  lute  should  be  like  the  case."  In  fact,  no 
part  of  any  musical  instrument  of  the  poet's  time 
seems  to  have  been  too  humble  for  him  to  draw  some 
metaphor  from. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

The  Musical  Life  of  England  in  Shakespeare's  Time  —  The  Great 
Contrapuntal  Epoch  —  Famous  English  Composers  —  Status  of 
Musicians  —  Shakespeare's  Satirical  Allusions  to  Musicians  — 
Brandt's  "  Ship  of  Fooles  "  —  Musical  Servants. 

So  much  has  been  said  and  written  about  the  liter- 
ary activity  of  Shakespeare's  time  that  the  "Eliza- 
bethan poets"  have  become  a  standard  subject  with 
which  every  schoolboy  is  acquainted,  and  the  epoch 
is  accepted  as  one  in  which  essays,  poems,  dramas, 
etc.,  flourished  as  never  before.  Without  impugning 
the  justice  of  this  estimate,  one  may  regret  that  it  is 
too  often  allowed  to  overshadow  the  great  musical 
advance  which  took  place  in  the  Elizabethan  and  Ja- 
cobean times.  The  names  of  Spenser,  Massinger, 
Beaumont,  Bacon,  Sidney,  Fletcher,  Marlowe,  Jonson 
(not  to  speak  of  the  greatest  of  them  all),  are  on 
every  tongue,  but  those  of  Farrant,  Weelkes,  Morley, 
Byrd,  Orlando  Gibbons,  Dowland,  Bull,  Ravenscroft, 
Tye,  Tallis,  Wilbye,  Forde,  and  others,  form  a  mu- 
sical roll  of  honour  that  ought  not  to  be  thrown  into 
the  background  by  the  list  of  literati ;  in  fact,  if  the 
great  name  of  Shakespeare  be  eliminated,  the  musical 

56 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  $? 

list  may  balance  the  poetic  one.  It  was  the  era  of 
England's  greatest  contrapuntal  activity,  the  epoch 
of  the  madrigal  in  its  best  state,  the  age  of  noble 
religious  composition ;  for  a  short  time  England 
seemed  to  wrest  the  sceptre  of  musical  supremacy 
from  Italy  itself.  But  the  literary  list  was  crowned 
with  the  greatest  poet  of  all  time,  while  England's 
chief  musical  genius,  Henry  Purcell,  came  a  couple 
of  generations  later.1 

In  tracing  the  musical  life  of  this  time,  however, 
one  must  carefully  discriminate  between  the  creator 
and  the  mere  performer  of  music ;  the  composers 
seem  to  have  been  held  in  considerable  esteem,  par- 
ticularly as  Henry  VIII.,  Edward  VI.,  Queen  Mary, 
and  Queen  Elizabeth  were  all  practical  musicians  and 
lovers  of  the  art  of  music.2  The  average  performer 
was  not  prized  so  highly.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that 
almost  all  of  Shakespeare's  musicians  are  pictured 
either  as  Bohemians  or  vagabonds.  We  have  already 
alluded  to  Mercutio's  indignation  at  being  classed 
with  "minstrels."  More  than  once  does  our  poet 
sneer  at  his  musicians  and  set  their  songs  in  a  frame 
of  satirical  comment.  Note,  for  example,  the  exqui- 
site  sarcasm  of  the  following  scene  ("  Much  Ado 
About  Nothing,"  Act  ii.  Sc.  3) : 

1  The  influence  of  Shakespeare  upon  Purcell  was  nevertheless  a 
marked  one. 

*  James  I.  was,  howei^r,  not  a  musical  monarch. 


58  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

"  Enter  Balthazar  with  Music} 

Don  Pedro.     Come,  Balthazar,  we'll  hear  that  song  again. 

Balthazar.     O  good  my  lord,  tax  not  so  bad  a  voice 
To  slander  music  any  more  than  once. 

Don  Pedro.     It  is  the  witness  still  of  excellency 
To  put  a  strange  face  on  his  own  perfection :  — 
I  pray  thee,  sing,  and  let  me  woo  no  more. 

Balthazar.     Because  you  talk  of  wooing,  I  will  sing: 
Since  many  a  wooer  doth  commence  his  suit 
To  her  he  thinks  not  worthy ;  yet  he  woos ; 
Yet  will  he  swear,  he  loves. 

Don  Pedro.     Nay,  pray  thee,  come : 
Or,  if  thou  wilt  hold  longer  argument, 
Do  it  in  notes. 

Balthazar.     Note  this  before  my  notes,  — 
There's  not  a  note  of  mine,  that's  worth  the  noting." 

Don  Pedro.     Why  these  are  very  crotchets 3  that  he  speaks  : 
Note,  notes,  forsooth,  and  noting !  [Music. 

Benedick.     Now,  '  Divine  air ! '  now  is  his  soul  ravished  ! 


1  The  Folio  has  it  "  Enter  Prince,  Leonato,  Claudio,  and  Jacke 
Wilson"  which  has  led  to  considerable  inquiry  as  to  who  Jacke 
Wilson  might  have  been.  It  has  been  suggested  that  he  may  have 
been  the  celebrated  Dr.  John  Wilson,  of  Oxford.  The  very  name 
"  Balthazar,"  however,  is  thought  to  be  derived  from  an  actual 
person,  Baltazarini  (de  Beaujoyeux),  a  prominent  composer  at  the 
court  of  Henry  III.  of  France.  (See  Furness,  Variorium  Edition, 
Vol.  XII.,  page  109,  for  a  collation  of  authorities  about  "  Jack 
Wilson.") 

2  The  ways  of  the  "  Shakespearian  commentator "  are  strange 
and  wonderful.  It  has  been  suggested,  because  of  this  passage, 
that  the  title  of  the  play  may  have  originally  been,  "Much  Ado 
About  Noting  I  "  The  pronunciation  of  "  nothing  "  in  Shakespeare's 
time  was  given  with  the  long  O,  —  "no  thing." 

3 "  Crotchets,"  a  musical  pun.  The  "crotchet"  is  the  English 
term  for  the  quarter-note. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  59 

—  Is  it  not  strange,  that  sheep's  guts  should  hale  souls  out  of 
men's  bodies  ?  —  Well,  a  horn  for  my  money,  when  all's  done.1 

Balthazar  Sings. 


Balthazar.     Sigh  no  more  ladies,  sigh  no  more, 
Men  were  deceivers  ever ; 
One  foot  in  sea,  and  one  on  shore, 
To  one  thing  constant  never : 
Then  sigh  not  so, 
But  let  them  go, 
And  be  you  bly the  and  bonny ; 
Converting  all  your  sounds  of  woe 
Into  hey  nonny,  nonny. 

n. 

Sing  no  more  ditties,  sing  no  mo 

Of  dumps  so  dull  and  heavy ; 
The  fraud  of  men  was  ever  so, 

Since  summer  first  was  leavy. 
Then  sigh  not  so,  etc." 

After  his  song  Balthazar  again  seeks  to  pump  out 
as  many  compliments  for  his  performance  as  possible, 
by  exhibiting  the  "pride  that  apes  humility ;"  a 
better  example  of  the  musician  "  fishing  for  compli- 
ments "  than  the  foregoing  and  the  following  can 
scarcely  be  imagined : 

1  The  horn  was  not  admitted  to  "  consort "  in  this  epoch.  It  was 
held  to  be  a  vulgar  instrument,  fit  only  for  hunting  and  field  sports. 
Even  in  Handel's  time  this  prejudice  against  the  finest  of  brass 
instruments  still  existed.  ^ 


6o  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

"Don  Pedro.     By  my  troth,  a  good  song. 

Balthazar.     And  an  ill  singer,  my  lord. 

Don  Pedro.  Ha?  no;  no,  faith;  thou  singest  well  enough 
for  a  shift. 

Benedick.  [Aside]  An  he  had  been  a  dog,  that  should 
have  howled  thus,  they  would  have  hanged  him ;  and  I  pray 
God,  his  bad  voice  bode  no  mischief!  I  had  as  lief  have 
heard  the  night-raven,  come  what  plague  could  have  come 
after  it." 

In  the  second  act  of  "As  You  Like  It "  (Scene  5, 
in  the  forest  of  Arden)  there  is  a  framework  of 
musical  comment  around  a  song  that  is  less  deroga- 
tory to  the  vocalist. 

"  Enter  Amiens,  Jaques,  and  others. 

song.1 

Amiens.     Under  the  greenwood  tree 
Who  loves  to  lie  with  me, 
And  tunes  his  merry  note 
Unto  the  sweet  bird's  throat, 
Come  hither,  come  hither,  come  hither; 
Here  shall  he  see 
No  enemy, 
But  winter  and  rough  weather. 

Jaques.     More,  more,  I  pr'ythee,  more. 

Amiens.     It  will  make  you  melancholy,  Monsieur  Jaques. 

Jaques.     I  thank  it.     More,  I  pr'ythee,  more.     I  can  suck 

1  This  has  received  many  settings  by  post-Shakespearian  compo- 
sers. The  oldest  music  attached  to  the  verses,  very  popular  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  is  here  printed,  and  was  very  probably  used  by 
Shakespeare.  (See  Chappell's  "  Collection  of  National  English 
Airs,"  page  62.) 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC  6l 

melancholy  out  of  a  song,  as  a  weasel  sucks  eggs:  More,  I 
prythee,  more., 

Amiens.  My  voice  is  ragged;  I  know,  I  cannot  please 
you. 

Jaques.  I  do  not  desire  you  to  please  me,  I  do  desire  you 
to  sing :  Come,  more ;  another  stanza :  Call  you  them  stanzas  ? 

Amiens.     What  you  will,  Monsieur  Jaques. 

Jaques.  Nay,  I  care  not  for  their  names ;  they  owe  me 
nothing :  Will  you  sing  ? 

Amiens.     More  at  your  request,  than  to  please  myself. 

Jaques.  Well,  then,  if  ever  I  thank  any  man,  I'll  thank 
you :  but  that  they  call  compliment,  is  like  the  encounter  of 
two  dog-apes ;  and  when  a  man  thanks  me  heartily,  methinks 
I  have  given  him  a  penny,  and  he  renders  me  the  beggarly 
thanks.     Come,  sing;  and  you  that  will  not,  hold  your  tongues. 

Amiens.  Well,  I'll  end  the  song.  —  Sirs,  cover  the  while, 
the  duke  will  drink  under  this  tree:  —  he  hath  been  all  this 
day  to  look  you. 

Jaques.  And  I  have  been  all  this  day  to  avoid  him.  He 
is  too  disputable  for  my  company :  I  think  of  as  many  mat- 
ters as  he :  but  I  give  Heaven  thanks,  and  make  no  boast  of 
them.     Come,  warble,  come. 

SONG. 

Who  doth  ambition  shun,       [All  together  here. 
And  loves  to  live  i'  the  sun, 
Seeking  the  food  he  eats, 
And  pleased  with  what  he  gets, 
Come  hither,  come  hither,  come  hither; 
Here  shall  he  see 
No  enemy, 
But  winter  and  rough  weather. 

Jaques.  I'll  give  you  a  verse  to  this  note,  that  I  made  yes- 
terday, in  despite  of  my  invention. 


62  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


Amiens.     And  I'll  sing  it. 
Jaques.     Thus  it  goes : 


If  it  do  come  to  pass 
That  any  man  turn  ass, 
Leaving  his  wealth  and  ease, 
A  stubborn  will  to  please, 
Ducdame,  ducdame,  ducdame; 
Here  shall  he  see 
Gross  fools  as  he, 
An  if  he  will  come  to  me. 

Amiens.     What's  that  ducdame  ? 

Jaques.  'Tis  a  Greek  invocation  to  call  fools  into  a  circle. 
I'll  go  sleep  if  I  can;  if  I  cannot,  I'll  rail  against  all  the  first- 
born of  Egypt. 

Amiens.  And  I'll  go  seek  the  duke;  his  banquet  is 
prepared.  [Exeunt  severally." 

In  the  refrain,  "  Ducdame,"  we  have  Shakespeare 
jesting  at  the  meaningless  character  of  many  burdens. 
Hanmer,  who  has  given  some  dainty  touches  to 
Shakespearian  readings  (as  we  shall  see  in  connection 
with  Cloten's  serenade,  in  "  Cymbeline "),  suggests 
that  "ducdame"  is  merely  a  misprint  for  "due  ad 
me"  ("bring  to  me"),  and  he  is  very  probably 
correct.  That  Jaques  endeavours  to  pass  off  his 
Latin  for  Greek  is  only  a  furtherance  of  the  jest. 

But  Hanmer's  suggestion  is  by  no  means  unani- 
mously accepted.  The  amount  of  debate  regarding 
"ducdame"  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  subject. 
If  the  reader  cares  to  examine  the  Variorum  Edition 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


63 


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*The  oldest  setting  of  these  words.    The  melody  very  popular  in  the 
17th  century.  \ 


64  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

(Furness),  Vol.  VI II.,  pages  97,  98,  and  99,  he  will 
be  astounded  at  the  amount  of  learned  commentary 
upon  this  single  word ;  and  Mr.  Furness  has  con- 
densed his  material  in  a  surprising  and  commendable 
degree.     A  few  of  the  theories  may  be  cited  here : 

Capell  says  it  is  a  free  Latinisation  of  "come 
hither,"  and  that  it  should  have  read  "hucdame;  * 
Farmer  suggests  that  it  is  a  word  coined  for  the 
occasion,  and  suggests  an  extra  rhyme  with  — 

"  Ducdame',  ducdame',  ducdame*, 
Here  he  shall  see 
Gross  fools  as  he, 
An  if  he  will  come  to  Ami!"  — 

the  last  mysterious  word  meaning  Amiens. 

Steevens  quotes  an  irrelevant  old  ballad  with  — 

"  Duck,  duck,  duck, 
Dame,  what  makes  your  chicks  to  cry,  — " 

sounding  the  final  "e"  in  dame,  as  all  agree  that 
"  ducdame "  was  used  by  Jaques  as  a  trisyllable. 
Knight  believes  the  word  to  be  a  duck-call  rather 
than  Latin.  Collier  thinks  it  the  burden  of  some  old, 
undiscovered  song.  Halliwell  adds  a  very  slight  bit 
of  evidence  in  the  same  direction  by  discovering  a 
similar  refrain,  "  Dusadam-me-me,"  in  a  version  of 
"  Piers  Ploughman,"  in  the  Bodleian  Library.  Staun- 
ton believes  it  a  coined  word.  "  A.  A."  in  "  Notes 
and  Queries,"  October  8,  1859  (quoted  by  Furness), 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  65 

believes  it  to  be  "  Due  da  me,"  meaning  "  Lead  him 
from  me,"  the  "da"  being  Italian,  and  the  sentence 
showing  Jaques  to  be  just  the  opposite  of  Amiens, 
with  his  "  Come  hither."  Another  commentator 
thinks  that  the  word  may  be  merely  an  imitation  of 
the  twang  of  a  guitar.  A  patriotic  Welshman  puts 
in  a  plea  for  "Dewch  da  mi,"  which,  it  appears, 
means  "  Come  with  (or  "  to  ")  me  "  in  Welsh  ;  a  chal- 
lenge similar  to  "  Come,  if  you  dare."  Another  sug- 
gests that  the  end  of  the  word,  "ame,"  is  French, 
and  should  be  "Ami,"  and  should  make  a  pun  on 
"  Amiens  "  and  "friend  !  " 

We  have  strayed  a  moment  from  our  musical 
topic,  but  the  illustration  of  the  fearfully  wide  scope 
of  Shakespearian  comment  is  too  odd  to  be  passed 
over.  Nor  are  the  possibilities  exhausted,  for  no- 
body has  yet  suggested  that  it  might  mean  "  Duke 
d'Ami,"  and  that  Jaques  is  proposing  to  Amiens  to 
usurp  the  dukedom  ;  or  that  it  might  be  "  Deuce 
damme,"  and  that  Jaques  is  swearing  at  the  host  of 
commentators  who  are  to  analyse  his  song  in  every 
new  edition  of  Shakespeare ! 

In  this  same  comedy  of  "As  You  Like  It,"  we 
can  find  a  satirical  allusion  to  the  vocalist,  as  severe, 
and  unfortunately  as  true  to  nature,  as  the  excerpt 
from  "  Much  Ado  About  Nothing."  It  is  in  Act  v. 
Sc.  3,  and  is  a  very  effective  bit  of  sarcasm  directed 
against  those   singers  (there  are  a  few  still  extant) 


66  ♦       SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

who   make   many  apologies   before   beginning,   and 
require  urging  to  their  task,  for  the  First  Page  says : 

*  Shall  we  clap  into  't  roundly  without  hawking  or  spitting, 
or  saying  •  we  are  hoarse/  which  are  the  only  prologues  to  a 
bad  voice  ?  * 

Perhaps  the  most  forcible  sarcasm  against  the 
musician  is  found  in  "Romeo  and  Juliet,"  and  this 
time  it  is  directed  against  both  instrumentalist  and 
singer.  It  is  where  the  wedding  festivities  of  Juliet 
with  Paris  are  suddenly  interrupted  by  the  supposed 
death  of  the  bride.  The  musicians  show  a  most  cal- 
lous disposition  in  the  matter ;  they  have  been  sent 
for  to  play  at  a  wedding,  they  will  probably  be  called 
upon  to  perform  at  the  funeral,  and  it  seems  to  matter 
very  little  to  them.  It  may  be  added  that  Peter 
seems  as  unconcerned  as  they,  and  Shakespeare  has 
been  criticised  for  allowing  so  light  a  touch  to  follow 
such  heavy  events;  it  has,  however,  been  urged  in 
palliation,  that  the  audience  know  that  Juliet  is  but 
in  a  trance,  and  the  dramatic  unities  are  not  disturbed 
by  the  following  passages  of  wit  (Act  iv.  Sc.  5) : 

"  First  Musician.    'Faith,  we  may  put  up  our  pipes,  and  be 
gone. 

Nurse.     Honest  good  fellows,  ah,  put  up,  put  up, 
For,  well  you  know,  this  is  a  pitiful  case.  [Exit. 

Second  Musician.  Ay,  by  my  troth,  the  case  may  be 
amended.1 

1  Possibly  a  feeble  pun  on  his  instrument-case. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  67 

Enter  Peter. 

Peter.  Musicians,  O  musicians,  «  Heart's  ease,  heart's 
ease : '  O,  an  you  will  have  me  live,  play  ■  Heart's  ease.' 

First  Musician.     Why  •  Heart's  ease  ? ' 

Peter.  O  musicians,  because  my  heart  itself  plays — '  My 
heart  is  full  of  wo  : '  O,  play  me  some  merry  dump,  to  comfort  me. 

Second  Musician.     Not  a  dump  we  ;  'tis  no  time  to  play  now. 

Peter.     You  will  not  then  ? 

Musician.     No. 

Peter.     I  will  then  give  it  you  soundly.      _ 

First  Musician.     What  will  you  give  us  ? 

Peter.  No  money,  on  my  faith  :  but  the  gleek ;  I  will  give 
you  the  minstrel.  . 

First  Musician.     Then  will  I  give  you  the  serving-creature. 

Peter.  Then  will  I  lay  the  serving-creature's  dagger  on 
your  pate.  I  will  carry  no  crotchets:  111  're*  you,  I'll  'fa' 
you :  Do  you  note  me  ? 

First  Musician.     An  you  { re '  us,  and  ■  fa '  us,  you  note  us. 

Second  Musician.  Pray  you,  put  up  your  dagger,  and  put 
out  your  wit. 

Peter.  Then  have  at  you  with  my  wit ;  I  will  dry-beat  you 
with  an  iron  wit,  and  put  up  my  iron  dagger :  —  Answer  me 
like  men : 

■  When  griping  grief  the  heart  doth  wound, 
And  doleful  dumps  the  mind  oppress, 
Then  music  with  her  silver  sound :  • 

Why,  ■  silver  sound?'  why,  *  music  with  her  silver  sound?' 
What  say  you,  Simon  Catling? 

First  Musician.  Marry,  sir,  because  silver  hath  a  sweet 
sound. 

Peter.     Pretty !    What  say  you,  Hugh  Rebeck  t 

Second  Musician.  I  say,  ■  silver  sound,'  because  musicians 
sound  for  silver. 

Peter.     Pretty  too  4^   What  say  you,  James  Soundpost  ? 


/ 


68 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC, 


Third  Musician.     Faith,  I  know  not  what  to  say. 

Peter.  O,  I  cry  you  mercy!  you  are  the  singer;  I  will 
say  for  you.  It  is  —  'music  with  her  silver  sound,'  because 
such  fellows  as  you  have  seldom  gold  for  sounding :  — 

*  Then  music,  with  her  silver  sound, 
With  speedy  help  doth  send  redress.' 

\Exit  singing. 

First  Musician.     What  a  pestilent  knave  is  this  same  ? 
Second  Musician.     Hang  him,  Jack !     Come,  we'll  in  here ; 
tarry  for  the  mourners,  and  stay  dinner.  [Exeunt." 


THE   OLD   MELODY  OF   "HEART'S-EASE." 

(Probably  composed  about  1570.) 


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This  entire  scene  was  possibly  a  sort  of  entr'acte 
such  as  is  explained  in  Chapter  XIII.  Will  Kempe 
(alluded  to  in  the  chapter  on  dances)  was  the  orig- 
inal Peter,  and  this  badinage  was  probably  intended 
to  display  him  at  his  best.  It  is  by  no  means  certain 
that  the  exact  text  was  adhered  to,  for  Will  Kempe 
would  add  all  possible  "  gags  "  and  interpolations. 

There  are  many  other  points  of  explanation  neces- 
sary to  the  above  scene.  "  Heart's-ease "  was  a 
favourite  tune  of  the  time,  the  melody  of  which  we 
append.  "My  heart  is  full  of  woe"  was  the  bur- 
den, or  refrain,  of  another  song  of  the  day,  "  The  Two 
Lovers." x     A   dump  was  a   melancholy   movement 

1  The  first  stanza  ran  : 
"  Complaine,  my  Lute,  complain  on  him,  that  stayes  so  long  away : 
He  promised  to  be  herl^ere  this,  but  still  unkind  doth  stay ; 


70  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

(see  chapter  on  dances),  and  a  merry  dump  would 
have  been  as  paradoxical  as  a  frolicsome  hymn.  The 
poem,  "When  Griping  Grief"  (which  was  probably 
sung  as  well  as  declaimed  in  this  scene),  and  its  musi- 
cal setting,  is  the  work  of  Richard  Edwards,  Master 
of  the  Children  of  the  Royal  Chapel,  in  Queen  Eliza- 
beth's reign.  We  give  the  poem  in  full,  and  also  its 
music.  The  satire  of  the  scene  is  not  directed  against 
the  music,  but  rather  against  those  "intention-finders  " 
who  seek  for  more  in  a  poetic  line  than  the  writer 
ever  dreamed  of.  Some  Shakespearian  commentators 
might  learn  a  lesson  from  this  scene,  if  they  chose  to 
study  it  in  this  light.     The  original  poem  runs : 

"Where  gripinge  grefes  the  hart  would  wounde, 
And  dolefulle  dumps  the  mynde  oppresse, 
There  musicke  with  her  silver  sound 

With  spede  is  wont  to  send  redresse : 
Of  troubled  mynds,  in  every  sore, 
Swete  musicke  hath  a  salve  in  store. 


"In  joye  yt  maks  our  mirthe  abounde, 

In  woe  yt  cheres  our  hevy  sprites ; 
Be-strawghted  heads  relyef  hath  founde, 

By  musickes  pleasaunt  swete  delightes  : 
Our  senses  all,  what  shall  I  say  more  ? 
Are  subjecte  unto  musicks  lore. 

But  now  the  proverbe  true  I  finde,  once  out  of  sight,  then  out  of 

mind. 
Hey  ho  !   My  heart  is  full  of  woe." 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


71 


*  The  Gods  by  musicke  have  theire  prayse ; 
The  lyfe,  the  soul  therein  doth  joye  ; 
For,  as  the  Romayne  poet  sayes, 

In  seas,  whom  pyrats  would  destroy, 
A  dolphin  saved  from  death  most  sharpe 
Arion  playing  on  his  harpe. 


"  O  heavenly  gyft,  that  rules  the  mynd, 

Even  as  the  sterne  dothe  rule  the  shippe ! 
O  musicke,  whom  the  Gods  assinde 

To  comforte  manne,  whom  cares  would  nippe  ! 
Since  thow  both  man  and  beste  doest  move, 
What  beste  ys  he,  wyll  the  disprove  ?  " 


A  SONG  TO  THE   LUTE   IN   MUSICKE. 

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In  Peter's  condescending  reply  to  James  Sound- 
post,  we  find  another  Shakespearian  fling  at  the 
vocalist.  Even  in  the  Elizabethan  epoch,  although 
the  education  of  the  singer  was  more  rigid  than  it  is 
nowadays,  there  were  often  found  persons  endowed 
by  nature  with  a  beautiful  voice  (or  a  high  one),  whose 
education  never  extended  any  higher  than  their  throat. 
It  is  against  such  ignorant  ones  that  the  shaft  seems 
to  be  aimed  ;  Peter  takes  it  as  a  matter  of  course  that 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  73 

the  singer  is  duller  than  the  other  musicians.  In 
taking  this  direct  view  of  the  meaning  of  the  remark, 
we  are  obliged  to  differ  from  the  ingenious  solution 
offered  by  Richard  Grant  White  (Houghton,  Mifflin  & 
Company's  edition),  which  is  that  the  phrase  —  "  You 
are  the  singer  "  —  shows  that  Shakespeare  understood 
the  violin ;  that  the  soundpost  stands  under  the  high- 
est string  of  the  instrument ;  that  the  E  string  of  the 
violin  was  called  the  Cantore,  that  is,  the  "  Singer ! " 
After  all  this  explanation,  one  is  tempted  to  ask,  — 
"What  of  it?"  Never  was  a  little  jest  pursued  so 
far  afield.  Even  to-day  there  exist  plenty  of  singers 
who  couid  stand  as  "  terrible  examples "  of  Shake- 
speare's meaning. 

It  may  be  recalled,  in  connection  with  the  status 
of  the  Shakespearian  musicians,  that  Prince  Hal  broke 
Falstaff's  head  for  comparing  his  father  to  "  a  sing- 
ing-man of  Windsor"  (Second  Part,  "Henry  IV.," 
Act  ii.  Sc.  i). 

Regarding  the  low  degree  of  the  itinerant  musician, 
Naylor  ("  Shakespeare  and  Music,"  p.  96)  quotes  the 
following  passage  from  Brandt's  "Ship  of  Fools," 
the  famous  satirical  poem  written  in  1494,  which 
(since  the  English  paraphrase  was  written  several 
years  later)  shows  the  estimation  in  which  musicians 
were  held  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  ; 

"  The  Furies  fearful,  sprong  of  the  floudes  of  hell, 
Bereft  these  vagabonds  in  their  mindes  so 


CJS 


74  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

That  by  no  meane  can  they  abide  ne  dwell 
Within  their  houses,  but  out  they  nede  must  go ; 

More  wildly  wandering  thon  either  bucke  or  doe. 
Some  with  their  harpes,  another  with  their  lute, 
Another  with  his  bagpipe,  or  a  foolishe  flute." 

This,  to  be  sure,  treats  of  serenaders,  but  regular 
musicians  were  among  them. 

One  can  find  traces  of  mediaeval  contempt  for  the 
wandering  musicians  in  the  many  laws  fulminated 
against  them  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
turies. The  gleemen  and  wandering  minstrels  (such 
as  Autolycus,  in  "  Winter's  Tale  "),  in  old  England, 
had  scarcely  any  rights  whatever ;  they  might  be 
abused,  robbed,  or  even  killed,  and  no  redress  could 
be  obtained.  In  York,  Chester,  Canterbury,  and 
Beverly,  the  minstrels  established  guilds  to  protect 
themselves.  For  a  graphic  picture  of  the  helpless 
state  of  the  minstrel  in  England,  in  early  times, 
we  must  refer  the  reader  to  Rowbotham's  "  Trouba- 
dours and  Courts  of  Love;"1  we  cite  the  case 
here  only  to  show  that  there  was  good  cause  for 
the  humble  status  of  the  musician  in  the  Elizabethan 
era ;  it  was  an  inheritance  from  bygone  times. 
Singular  to  relate,  some  of  the  English  laws  against 
wandering  musicians,  having  fallen  into  desuetude, 
have  never  been  repealed ;  it  is  barely  possible  that 

1  See  also  Chappell's  **  National  English  Airs,"  Percy's  ■  Re- 
liques,"  and  Ritson's  "  Collection  of  English  Songs." 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  f$ 

they  might  be  resuscitated,  at  some  inopportune 
moment,  as  was  the  case  with  another  statute,  in  18 19, 
when  a  convicted  murderer  escaped  punishment  by- 
demanding  the  right  of  trial  by  combat,  and  challeng- 
ing his  accuser  (in  this  case  the  counsel  for  the 
prosecution)  to  a  battle  to  the  death. 

But,  as  there  was  a  decided  difference  in  station 
between  the  ordinary  musician  and  the  composer,  so 
there  was  also  distinction  made  between  the  musician 
and  the  amateur.  Every  gentleman  dabbled  in  music 
to  some  degree,  and,  in  addition  to  the  viol-playing 
described  in  Chapter  II.,  it  was  held  to  be  necessary 
for  every  cultured  person  to  be  able  to  descant,  or 
add  a  part  to  any  melody  that  was  sung.  Nor  was 
this  singing  confined  to  the  upper  classes ;  in  the 
old  English  plays  we  find  tinkers  and  tailors,  millers 
and  soldiers,  in  short,  all  classes,  high  and  low,  rec- 
reating themselves  with  vocal  music.  The  especial 
catch  of  the  tinkers,  for  example,  ran  : 

"  Now  God  be  with  old  Simeon, 
For  he  made  cans  for  many  a  one, 

And  a  good  old  man  was  he : 
And  Jinkin  was  his  journey-man, 
And  he  could  tipple  of  every  can, 

And  thus  he  said  to  me : 
To  whom  drink  you  ? 
Sir  Knave,  to  you. 

Then,  hey  ho  !  jolly  Jinkin, 

I  spy  a  knave  in  drinking. 
Come  troje  the  bowl  to  me." 


76 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


That  servants  were  occasionally  expected  to  be  able 
to  take  part  in  the  music  of  their  masters  is  clearly 
proved,  also.  Pepys  seems  often  to  have  caused  his 
wife  and  her  maid  to  join  with  him  in  song. 

The  " musicians"  introduced  by  Shakespeare  into 
his  plays  are  generally  of  the  lower  and  less  esteemed 
sort,  and  he  often  seems  to  allude  to  their  humble 
station  either  directly  or  by  innuendo,  as  illustrated 
above. 

Carmen  were  especially  musical.  Falstaff  (Second 
Part  of  "  Henry  IV.,"  Act  iii.  Sc.  2)  speaks  of  Shal- 
low hearing  "  the  carmen  whistle,"  and  there  exists 
an  old  English  folk-song,  which  the  early  contra- 
puntists did  not  disdain  to  make  "  divisions  "  upon, 
called  "The  Carman's  Whistle,"  which  we  present 
herewith. 

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The  words  to  this  melody  were  rather  broad,  and  do  not  require  reprinting, 
since  Shakespeare  alludes  only  to  the  music  of  the  Carman. 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  f] 

Nor  were  carmen,  tailors,  and  tinkers,  the  only 
practical  musicians  among  the  trades.  A  very  pretty 
custom  was  borrowed  from  Germany,  where,  in  me- 
diaeval times,  every  'prentice  lad  was  obliged  to 
learn  the  melodies  which  custom  had  assigned  to  his 
trade,  and  chant  the  rhymes  reciting  the  names  of 
his  tools.  Doloony,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Gentle 
Craft,"  thus  portrays  a  meeting  of  shoemakers 
(1598): 

"  And  coming  in  this  sort  to  Gilford,  they  were  both  taken 
for  shoemakers,  and  verie  hartilie  welcomed  by  the  jorneymen 
of  that  place,  especially  Harry,  because  they  never  saw  him 
before :  and  at  their  meeting  they  askt  him  if  he  could  sing,  or 
sound  the  trumpet,  or  play  upon  the  flute,  or  recon  up  his  tooles 
in  rime,  or  manfully  handle  the  pike-staff,  or  fight  with  sword 
and  buckler  ?  ■  Beleeve  me,'  quoth  Harrie,  *  I  can  neither 
sound  the  trumpet  nor  play  on  the  flute ;  and  beshroe  his  nose 
that  made  me  a  shoomaker,  for  he  never  tought  me  to  recon 
up  my  tooles  in  rime  nor  in  prose.'  " 

Whereupon  Harrie  was  adjudged  an  impostor. 

Fitz-Stephen  describes  the  joyous  music  of  the 
London  'prentices  and  their  sweethearts,  as  early  as 
1 1 74.  Decidedly,  the  English  were  a  musical  people 
in  ancient  times ;  more  so  than  at  present. 


CHAPTER   V. 

Shakespeare's  Technical  Knowledge  of  Music  —  "Broken  Music" 
—  John  Skelton's  Diatribe  —  Time  Keeping  —  Harmony  Prized 
Above  Mere  Melody  —  The  Eighth  Sonnet — Similar  Views  of 
Browning —  The  Proper  Wedding  of  Poetry  and  Music —  "The 
Passionate  Pilgrim "  —  Wagner  and  Herbert  Spencer  on  the 
Union  of  the  Two  Arts. 

We  now  approach  certain  passages  written  by 
Shakespeare,  which  indicate  that  the  poet  not  only 
appreciated  the  art,  but  actually  had  become  ac- 
quainted with  some  of  its  technicalities.  In  the 
thirty-seven  plays  (in  this  numeration  we  include 
"  Titus  Andronicus  ")  only  five  are  barren  of  musical 
allusions,  while  the  sonnets  and  "Tarquin  and  Lu- 
crece,"  as  well  as  the  "Passionate  Pilgrim,"  possess 
some  very  subtle  passages  relative  to  the  art.  In 
studying  many  of  the  passages,  the  conviction  is  borne 
in  upon  us  that  Shakespeare  was  himself  a  singer. 
The  vocal  allusions  are  more  detailed,  and  exhibit  a 
surer  hand  than  those  connected  with  instrumental 
work. 

We  have  already  given  (in  Chapter  I.)  a  tolerably 
complete  list  of  the  instruments  of  Shakespeare's 
time,  as  recited  by  Michael  Drayton.     In  that  cita- 

78 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  79 

tion,  little  was  said  of  the  vocal  side  of  music. 
Nay  lor,  in  his  "  Shakespeare  and  Music  "  (pp.  66  and 
6j),  quotes  a  very  interesting  set  of  rhymes  from  John 
Skelton,  which  allude  to  the  vocal  as  well  as  the 
instrumental  side  of  the  musical  life  of  the  time  of 
Henry  VIII.  John  Skelton  was  one  of  the  coarsest 
of  the  poets  of  a  very  coarse  epoch  (we  shall  read  of 
him  again  in  connection  with  the  bacchanalian  music 
of  the  time),  yet,  as  he  was  tutor  to  Henry  VIII.,  was 
allowed  unchallenged  to  assume  the  titles  of  "  Poeta 
Laureatus  "  and  "  Orator  Regius,"  and  was  praised 
by  the  great  Erasmus  as  a  literary  light  of  England, 
his  lucubrations  may  not  be  slightingly  rated.  He 
lived  a  most  litigious  life,  a  veritable  Dean  Swift  of 
his  time  ;  and  it  is  because  of  this  that  the  subjoined 
poem  (?)  exists.  A  fashionable  music  teacher  had 
sneered  at  Skelton's  mode  of  life  (he  was  persona  non 
grata  to  many),  and  Skelton  replied  in  his  usual  in- 
vective, sneering  at  the  musician : 

"  With  hey  troly  loly,  lo  whip  here  Jak, 
Alumbek,  sodyldym  syllorym  ben,1 
Curiously  he  can  both  counter  and  knak, 
Of  Martin  Swart,  and  all  his  merry  men ; 
Lord,  how  Perkyn  is  proud  of  his  Pohen, 

1 "  Hey  Troly  Loly  "  is  the  old  refrain  which  afterward  became 
"  tol  de  rol  "  in  drinking  songs.  It  is  an  old  Scottish  exclamation 
similar  to  "  alack-a-day."  Possibly  the  second  line  is  also  a  refrain. 
"  Rumbill-down,  tumbill-ctown  "  may  admit  of  a  similar  explanation. 


80  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

But  ask  wher  he  findeth  among  his  monachords 
An  holy-water-clark  a  ruler  of  lordes. 

"  He  cannot  fynd  it  in  rule  nor  in  space, 
He  solfyth  too  haute,  hys  trybyll  is  too  high, 
He  braggyth  of  his  byrth  that  borne  was  full  base, 
Hys  musyk  withoute  mesure,  too  sharp,  is  his  '  my,' 
He  trymmeth  in  his  tenor  to  counter  pardy, 
His  descant  is  besy,  it  is  without  a  mene, 
Too  fat  is  his  fantsy,  his  wyt  is  too  lene. 

"  He  tumbryth  on  a  lewde  lewte,  Rotybulle  Joyse, 
Rumbill  downe,  tumbill  downe,  hey  go,  now  now, 
He  fumblyth  in  his  fyngering  an  ugly  rude  noise, 
It  seemyth  the  sobbyng  of  an  old  sow: 
He  wolde  be  made  moch  of,  and  he  wyst  how ; 
Well  sped  in  spindels  and  tuning  of  travellys 
A  bungler,  a  brawler,  a  picker  of  quarrels. 

"  Comely  he  clappyth  a  payre  of  clavicordys 
He  whystelyth  so  swetely  he  maketh  me  to  swet, 
His  discant  is  dashed  full  of  discordes, 
A  red  angry  man,  but  easy  to  intrete,"  etc. 

Further  on  he  adds  : 

"  For  lordes  and  ladyes  lerne  at  his  scole, 
He  techyth  them  so  wysely  to  solf  and  to  fayne, 
That  neither  they  sing  wel  prike-song  nor  plain." 

We  shall  find  the  meaning  of  almost  all  of  the 
vocal  expressions  of  this  poem  in  the  subsequent 
Shakespearian  citations ;  the  instruments  have  al- 
ready been  spoken  of  in  Chapter  I.,  with  two  excep- 
tions ;  the  clavichord  was  an  instrument  like  the 
virginals,  with  the  important  exception  that  the  tone 


GUIDO   OF    AREZZO   AND    HIS    PROTECTOR,   BISHOP    THEODAL, 
WITH   THE   MONOCHORD. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  8 1 

was  produced  by  push  of  a  sharp-edged  tangent 
against  the  string,  instead  of  the  pluck  of  a  quill ; 
the  "monochord"  (Skelton  spells  it  "  monachord  "  to 
aid  his  pun,  "  monachi "  or  monks)  was  the  progeni- 
tor of  clavichords,  spinets,  virginals,  in  short,  of  all 
instruments  of  the  piano  family.  It  consisted  of  a 
single  wire  (sometimes  of  two),  under  which  a  mov- 
able bridge  was  placed,  and  the  string  thus  made 
longer  or  shorter,  the  tone  higher  or  lower,  as  the 
performer  desired.  It  was  plucked  with  a  quill  or 
plectrum,  as  the  mandoline  is  nowadays.  We  give  a 
very  ancient  picture  of  Guido  of  Arezzo  and  his 
patron,  Bishop  Theodal,  with  a  monochord.  We 
need  only  to  add  that  "  Rotybulle  Joyse  "  is  the  title 
of  an  old  song  of  the  time. 
r-  The  employment  of  the  instruments,  either  in 
accompanying  vocal  music,  or  in  purely  instrumental 
forms,  had  one  peculiar  restriction,  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries.  It  was  the  habit  of  keep- 
ing each  family  of  instruments  by  itself  in  a  "  con- 
sort." Thus  there  could  be  "a  consort  of  viols,"  a 
"  consort  of  hautboys,"  but  if  one  kind  of  instrument 
entered  into  a  "  consort  "  of  other  instruments  than 
those  of  its  own  family  the  result  was  called  "  broken 
music."  ■ 

1  See  Chapter  I. ;  also  "  Proceedings  of  the  Musical  Association  " 
(London),  12th  session,  1885-86,  p.  41,  Sir  G.  A.  Macfarren  on  this 
subject.  ^ 


82  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

More  than  once  «Ioes  Shakespeare  allude  to 
"broken  music."  In  "Troilus  and  Cressida"  (Act 
iii.  Sc.  i ),  we  find  the  following : 

"Pandarus.  Fair  be  to  you,  my  lord,  and  to  all  this  fair 
company !  fair  desires,  in  all  fair  measure,  fairly  guide  them ! 
especially  to  you,  fair  queen!  fair  thoughts  be  your  fair 
pillow ! 

Helen.     Dear  lord,  you  are  full  of  fair  words. 

Pandarus.  You  speak  your  fair  pleasure,  sweet  queen. 
Fair  prince,  here  is  good  broken  music. 

Paris.  You  have  broke  it,  cousin ;  and,  by  my  life,  you 
shall  make  it  whole  again;  you  shall  piece  it  out  with  a  piece 
of  your  performance  :  —  Nell,  he  is  full  of  harmony. 

Pandarus.     Truly,  lady,  no." 

Richard  Grant  White  considers  Shakespeare  occa- 
sionally to  have  meant  part-music  when  speaking  of 
broken  music,  and  imagines  it  so  applied  in  this 
case,  but  the  weight  of  evidence  is  in  favour  of  the 
explanation  given  above. 

It  is  natural  enough  that  the  great  punster  should 
not  have  omitted  the  chance  to  make  his  play  upon 
words  whenever  he  uses  this  metaphor.  King  Henry 
V.,  in  his  wooing  of  Queen  Katharine,  speaks  thus 
(Act  v.  Sc.  2) : 

"  Come,  your  answer  in  broken  music ;  for  thy  voice  is 
music,  and  thy  English  broken ;  therefore,  queen  of  all,  Kath- 
arine, break  thy  mind  to  me  in  broken  English.  Wilt  thou 
\iave  me  ?  " 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  83 

In  "As  You  Like  It,"  Act  i.  Sc.  2,  Rosalind  pun- 
ningly  speaks  of  the  wrestling,  in  which  the  duke's 
wrestler  has  broken  the  ribs  of  three  opponents : 

"  But  is  there  any  else  longs  to  see  this  broken  music  in  his 
sides  ? " 

I,  Naturally  enough  the  poet  draws  many  metaphors 
from  the  tuning  of  instruments.  The  tuning  of 
heart-strings  is  spoken  of  in  "  Lucrece,"  in  a  passage 
that  is  so  embroidered  with  musical  metaphor  that 
we  give  it  entire : 


" '  You  mocking  birds,'  quoth  she,  '  your  tunes  entomb 
Within  your  hollow  swelling  feather'd  breast, 

And  in  my  hearing  be  you  mute  and  dumb ! 
(My  restless  discord  loves  no  stops  nor  rests; 
A  woful  hostess  brooks  not  merry  guests :) 

Relish  your  nimble  notes  to  pleasing  ears ; 

Distress  likes  dumps  when  time  is  kept  with  tears. 

" « Come,  Philomel,  that  sing'st  of  ravishment, 
Make  thy  sad  grove  in  my  dishevel'd  hair. 
As  the  dank  earth  weeps  at  thy  languishment, 
So  I  at  each  sad  strain  will  strain  a  tear, 
And  with  deep  groans  the  diapason  bear: 
For  burthen- wise  I'll  hum  on  Tarquin  still, 
While  thou  on  Tereus  descant'st  better  skill. 

"  *  And  whiles  against  a  thorn  thou  bear'st  thy  part, 
To  keep  thy  sharp  woes  waking,  wretched  I, 
To  imitate  thee  well,  against  my  heart 

Will  fix  a  sharp  knife,  to  affright  mine  eye : 
Who,  if  it  win^,  shall  thereon  fall  and  die. 


84  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

These  means,  as  frets  upon  an  instrument, 
Shall  tune  our  heart-strings  to  true  languishment. 

" « And  for,  poor  bird,  thou  sing'st  not  in  the  day, 
As  shaming  any  eye  should  thee  behold, 

Some  dark  deep  desert,  seated  from  the  way, 
That  knows  not  parching  heat  nor  freezing  cold, 
Will  we  find  out ;  and  there  we  will  unfold 

To  creatures  stern,  sad  tunes,  to  change  their  kinds ; 

Since  men  prove  beasts,  let  beasts  bear  gentle  minds.' " 

"Discord,"  "stops,"  "dumps,"  "rests,"  "diapason  " 
(the  fundamental  bass  in  this  case),  "burthen-wise" 
(containing  a  burden),  "descant,"  "bearing  a  part," 
"  frets,"  and  "  tuning !  "  Rarely  can  one  find  a 
poem  where  music  is  so  heavily  drawn  upon  for 
similes. 

A  fitting  complement  to  this  tuning  with  heart- 
strings is  found  in  the  stringing  of  Orpheus's  lute 
with  poets'  sinews. I  The  simile  is  found  in  "  Two 
Gentlemen  of  Verona  "  (Act  iii.  Sc.  2)  where  Proteus 
hypocritically  gives  advice  to  Thurio  as  to  the  best 
mode  of  wooing  Sylvia.  It  will  be  noticed  that  con- 
certed music  is  again  alluded  to,  and  again  we  meet 
with  that  slow  dance  or  song,  called  the   "dump" 

1  In  this  connection  the  description  of  John  of  Gaunt's  death  in 
*'  Richard  II.,"  Act  ii.  Sc.  5,  may  be  mentioned : 
"  Northumberland.     My  liege,  old  Gaunt  commends  him  to  your 
majesty. 
King  Richard.     What  says  he  now  ? 
Northumberland.     Nay,  nothing ;  all  is  said : 
His  tongue  is  now  a  stringless  instrument." 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  85 

(see   preceding   chapter,    and   also   the    chapter   on 
dances). 

"  Proteus.     Say,  that  upon  the  altar  of  her  beauty 
You  sacrifice  your  tears,  your  sighs,  your  heart ; 
Write  till  your  ink  be  dry ;  and  with  your  tears 
Moist  it  again ;  and  frame  some  feeling  line, 
That  may  discover  such  integrity : 
For  Orpheus'  lute  was  strung  with  poets'  sinews ; 
Whose  golden  touch  could  soften  steel  and  stones, 
Make  tigers  tame,  and  huge  leviathans 
Forsake  unsounded  deeps  to  dance  on  sands. 
After  your  dire  lamenting  elegies, 
Visit  by  night  your  lady's  chamber  window 
With  some  sweet  concert :  to  their  instruments 
Tune  a  deploring  dump ;  the  night's  dead  silence 
Will  well  become  such  sweet  complaining  grievance. 
This,  or  else  nothing,  will  inherit  her. 

Duke.     This  discipline  shews  thou  hast  been  in  love. 
Thurio.     And  thy  advice  this  night  I'll  put  in  practice: 
Therefore,  sweet  Proteus,  my  direction-giver, 
Let  us  into  the  city  presently, 
To  sort  some  gentlemen  well  skill'd  in  music : 
I  have  a  sonnet  that  will  serve  the  turn, 
To  give  the  onset  to  thy  good  advice." 

When  the  serenade  takes  place  (Act  iv.  Sc.  2),  the 
musical  terms  and  the  punning  grow  thicker. 

"  Enter  Thurio  and  Musicians. 

Thurio.     How,  now,  Sir  Proteus  !  are  you  crept  before  us  ? 
Proteus.     Ay,  gentle  Thurio  ;  for  you  know  that  love 
Will  creep  in  service  where  it  cannot  go. 

Thurio.     Ay ;  but  I  hope,  sir,  that  you  love  not  here. 
Proteus.     Sir,  but  ^do ;  or  else  I  would  be  hence. 


86  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

Thurio.     Who  ?  Silvia  ? 
Proteus.     Ay,  Silvia,  for  your  sake. 
Thurio.     I  thank  you  for  your  own.     Now,  gentlemen, 
Let's  tune,  and  to  it  lustily  awhile. 

Enter  Host  and  Julia  behind;  Julia  in  boy's  clothes. 

Host.  Now,  my  young  guest,  methinks  you're  allycholly: 
I  pray  you,  why  is  it  ? 

Julia.     Marry,  mine  host,  because  I  cannot  be  merry. 

Host.  Come,  we'll  have  you  merry.  I'll  bring  you  where 
you  shall  hear  music  and  see  the  gentleman  that  you  asked 
for. 

Julia.     But  shall  I  hear  him  speak  ? 

Host.     Ay,  that  you  shall. 

Julia.     That  will  be  music.  [Music plays. 

Host.     Hark!  hark! 

Julia.     Is  he  among  these  ? 

Host.    Ay ;  but  peace  !  let's  hear  'em. 

SONG.1 

Who  is  Silvia  ?  what  is  she, 

That  all  our  swains  commend  her  ? 

Holy,  fair  and  wise  is  she ; 

The  heaven  such  grace  did  lend  her, 

That  she  might  admired  be. 

Is  she  kind  as  she  is  fair  ? 

For  beauty  lives  with  kindness: 
Love  doth  to  her  eyes  repair, 

To  help  him  of  his  blindness ; 
And,  being  help'd,  inhabits  there. 

*  This  song  has  been  gloriously  set  to  music  by  Schubert.  The 
Shakespearian  music  is  lost. 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  87 

Then  to  Silvia  let  us  sing, 

That  Silvia  is  excelling; 
She  excels  each  mortal  thing 

Upon  the  dull  earth  dwelling; 
To  her  let  us  garlands  bring. 

Host.  How  now !  are  you  sadder  than  you  were  before  ? 
How  do  you,  man  ?  the  music  likes  you  not. 

Julia.  You  mistake  ;  the  musician  likes  me  not. 

Host.  Why,  my  pretty  youth  ? 

Julia.  He  plays  false,  father. 

Host.  How  ?  out  of  tune  on  the  strings  ? 

Julia.  Not  so ;  but  yet  so  false  that  he  grieves  my  very 
heart-strings. 

Host.  You  have  a  quick  ear. 

Julia.  Ay,  I  would  I  were  deaf ;  it  makes  me  have  a  slow 
heart. 

Host.  I  perceive  you  delight  not  in  music. 

Julia.  Not  a  whit,  when  it  jars  so. 

Host.  Hark  !  what  fine  change  is  in  the  music. 

Julia.  Ay,  that  change  is  the  spite. 

Host.  You  would  have  them  always  play  but  one  thing  ? 

Julia.  I  would  always  have  one  play  but  one  thing." 

Probably  the  finest  metaphor  taken  from  the  tun- 
ing and  untuning  of  musical  instruments  is  found  in 
"  Othello  "  (Act  ii.  Sc.  1). 

"  Othello.     I  cannot  speak  enough  of  this  content, 
It  stops  me  here  :  it  is  too  much  of  joy : 
And  this,  and  this,  the  greatest  discords  be, 

[Kissing  Desdemona. 
That  e'er  our  hearts  shall  make ! 

lago.     O,  you  are  well  tuned  now ! 
But  I'll  set  down  the  pegs  that  make  this  music, 
As  honest  as  I  arn^  [Aside." 


88  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

The  making  of  discord  out  of  sweet  music,  by 
tampering  with  the  tuning-pins,  is  one  that  every 
musician  will  recognise  as  the  perfection  of  aptness. 
Ulysses's  metaphor  ("Troilus  and  Cressida,"  Act  i. 
Sc.  3)  is  in  the  same  line,  if  less  intense.  He  speaks 
of  degrees  and  rank : 

"  Take  but  degree  away,  untune  that  string, 
And  hark,  what  discord  follows!  " 

Next  to  the  matter  of  tune  the  musician  is  con- 
cerned about  time-keeping,  and  we  find  our  musical 
poet  as  ready  to  draw  his  similes  from  the  one  topic 
as  the  other.  The  finest  passage  relative  to  time  in 
music  is  found  in  "  Richard  II."  (Act  v.  Sc.  5),  just 
before  the  king  meets  his  death  : 

"  K,  Richard.     Music -do  I  hear?  [Music. 

Ha,  ha  !  keep  time  :  —  How  sour  sweet  music  is, 
When  time  is  broke,  and  no  proportion  kept ! 
So  is  it  in  the  music  of  men's  lives. 
And  here  have  I  the  daintiness  of  ear, 
To  check  time  broke  in  a  disorder'd  string; 
But,  for  the  concord  of  my  state  and  time, 
Had  not  an  ear  to  hear  my  true  time  broke. 
I  wasted  time,  and  now  doth  time  waste  me." 

One  of  the  subtlest  of  musical  touches  connected 
with  time-keeping  is  found  in  "  Romeo  and  Juliet " 
(Act  i.  Sc.  4),  where  Mercutio  describes  Tybalt  to 
Benvolio : 

"  Betivolio.     Why,  what  is  Tybalt? 
Mercutio.     More  than  prince  of  cats,  I  can  tell  you.     O,  he 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  89 

is  the  most  courageous  captain  of  compliments.  He  fights  as 
you  sing  prick-song,  keeps  time,  distance,  and  proportions- 
rests  me  his  minim  rest,  one,  two,  and  the  third  in  your  bosom  ; 
the  very  butcher  of  a  silk  button,  a  duellist,  a  duellist ;  a  gentle- 
man of  the  very  first  house,  —  of  the  first  and  second  cause : 
Ah,  the  immortal  passado  !  the  punto  reverso !  the  hay !  " 

The  above  passage  has  not  been  completely  eluci- 
dated in  any  of  the  comments  with  which  the  author 
is  familiar.  The  allusions  to  "Tybert,  the  cat," 
taken  from  the  old  tale  of  Reineke  Fuchs,  the  ancient 
German  beast-epic,  and  the  picture  of  the  extreme 
politeness  of  the  professional  duellist,  may  be  dis- 
missed as  foreign  to  our  subject,  but  not  so  the 
allusions  to  the  time  and  to  the  prick-song. 

In  the  Elizabethan  day  it  was  held  to  be  part  of  a 
liberal  education  to  be  able  to  sing  a  second  part  to 
any  melody  that  one  might  hear.  This  free  addition 
to  the  actual  tune  was  called__^_Descant,"  from  Dis 
Cantus  (with,  or  from,  the  song),  and  had,  of  course, 
considerable  license.  On  the  other  hand,  often  the 
composer  desired  a  more  intricate  and  more  exact 
supporting  voice,  and  therefore  wrote  his  descant 
himself;  as  this  was  now  printed,  or  "pricked  down," 
such  a  strict  counterpoint  was  called  the  "prick- 
song."  ■     It  was  counted  by  tapping  the  foot  in  time 

1  Strype's  account  of  the  funeral  of  Henry  VIII.  says  :  "  Wed- 
nesday, 16  February,  1547,  the  Bishop  of  Ely  begun  the  mass  of 
the  Trinity ;  his  dean  and  subdeacon  were  two  bishops,  mitred, 
which  was  solemnly  sung  in  prick-song  discant,  and  organ-playing  to 
the  offertory."  \ 


90  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

with  the  music,  or,  more  frequently  and  more  artis- 
tically, by  waving  the  hand  as  the  conductor  of  or- 
chestra or  chorus  to-day  waves  his  baton.  To  prove 
this  mode  of  motion,  we  give  a  quotation  from  Play- 
ford's  "  Introduction  to  the  Skill  of  Musick"  (1664) : 

"  Of  the  keeping  of  Time  by  the  Measure  of  the 
Semibreve  or  Masternote.  —  Observe  that  to  the  measure 
of  the  semibreve  all  notes  are  proportioned,  and  its  measure, 
when  whole,  is  expressed  (naturally  by  the  voice,  or  artificially 
by  an  instrument)  by  moving  the  hand  or  foot  up  and  down. 
In  notes  of  augmentation,  the  sound  is  continued  to  more  than 
one  Semibreve  j  but  in  notes  of  diminution,  the  sound  is  vari- 
ously broken  into  Minims,  Crotchets,  and  Quavers,  or  the 
like :  so  that  in  keeping  time  your  hand  goes  down  at  one  half, 
which  is  a  Minim,  and  up  at  the  next." 

In  short,  we  have  here  a  description  of  motions 
similar  to  those  made  by  a  conductor  in  leading  his 
orchestra.  Had  the  present  mode  of  conducting  been 
in  vogue  at  that  time,  we  would  have  found  Shake- 
speare taking  his  simile  from  it.  As  it  is,  he  uses 
the  motion  of  the  hand  of  the  singer  when  counting 
his  prick-song  to  picture  the  motions  of  the  expert 
fencer,  —  "  one,  two,  and  the  third  "  (a  thrust)  "  in 
your  bosom." 

One  of  the  surest  proofs  of  Shakespeare's  musical 
nature  is  his  appreciation  of  harmony  above  mere 
melody.  This  comprehension  of  musical  combina- 
tions is  one  of  the  best  tests  of  musicianship  ;  almost 
all  the  world  loves  a  good  tune,  but  it  is  given  only 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  9 1 

to  the  elect  to  enjoy  the  intricacies  of  harmony 
counterpoint.  In  Shakespeare's  day  the  homophonic 
structures,  which  we  build  according  to  the  laws  of 
harmony,  did  not  exist.  Combined  music  was  con- 
trapuntal and  more  complex  than  that  of  to-day. 
Hauptmann  has  summed  this  up  in  a  sentence, 
*'  Of  old  music  was  horizontal,  now  it  has  become 
vertical,"  and  it  may  be  added  that  the  horizontal 
music,  the  support  of  melody  by  melody,  the  twining 
together  of  various  parts  like  the  strands  of  a  rope, 
was  a  much  more  subtile  process  than  the  support  of 
a  single  tune  by  a  chord-mass,  as  one  supports  a 
bridge  by  occasional  pillars.  In  the  eighth  sonnet 
Shakespeare  shows,  very  plainly,  his  preference  for 
combinations  of  counterpoint  to  mere  tunes.  It  is 
one  of  the  set  in  which  he  advises  his  friend,  Mr. 
"W.  H."  (probably  William  Herbert,  afterward  — 
1 60 1 — Earl  of  Pembroke),  to  marry: 

"  Music  to  hear,  why  hear'st  thou  music  sadly  ? 
Sweets  with  sweets  war  not,  joy  delights  in  joy. 
Why  lov'st  thou  that  which  thou  receiv'st  not  gladly, 
Or  else  receiv'st  with  pleasure  thine  annoy? 
If  the  true  concord  of  well-tune'd  sounds, 
By  unions  married,  do  offend  thine  ear, 
They  do  but  sweetly  chide  thee,  who  confounds 
In  singleness  the  parts  that  thou  should'st  bear. 
Mark,  how  one  string,  sweet  husband  to  another, 
Strikes  each  in  each  by  mutual  ordering ; 
Resembling  sire  and  child  and  happy  mother, 
Who  all  in  one,  one  pleasing  note  do  sing : 


92  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Whose  speechless  song,  being  many,  seeming  one, 
Sings  this  to  thee,  —  Thou  single  wilt  prove  none." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  other  great  music- 
lover  among  poets,  Browning,  uses  almost  the  same 
note  of  praise,  in  contrasting  musical  combinations 
(chords)  with  simple  tones  or  melodies.  The  passage 
is  found  in  "  Abt  Vogler." 

"  Here  is  the  finger  of  God ;  a  flash  of  the  will  that  can; 
Existent  behind  all  laws ;  that  made  them,  and  lo  !  they  are. 
And  I  know  not  if,  save  in  this,  such  gift  be  allowed  to  Man, 
That  out  of  three  sounds  he  frame,  not  a  fourth  sound,  but  a 

star. 
Consider  it  well,  each  note  of  our  scale  in  itself  is  naught, 
It  is  everywhere  in  the  world,  loud,  soft,  and  all  is  said. 
Give  it  to  me  to  use :  I  mix  it  with  two  in  my  thought, 
And  —  there  !     Ye  have  heard  and  seen.     Consider  and  bow 

the  head." 

"  The  Passionate  Pilgrim  "  can  scarcely  be  called 
a  Shakespearian  work.  Printed  in  1599,  by  the  un- 
scrupulous publisher,  William  Jaggard,  a  man  who 
seized  his  material  wherever  he  could  find  it,  and  gave 
it  to  the  public  under  whatever  author's  name  would 
sell  it  best,  it  is  one  of  the  most  tantalising  works  in 
literature,1  for  we  know  that  our  poet  wrote  some 
part  of  it,  and  cannot  of  surety  say  just  which  num- 
bers belong  to  him. 

1  Two  similar  cases  exist  among  great  musical  works.  Mozart's 
1 2th  Mass,  and  his  Requiem  were  both  partially  composed  by  him ; 
the  question  still  puzzles  the  commentators,  which  parts  are  Mozart's. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  93 

There  is  one  sonnet  in  this  collection  which  has 
often  been  quoted  (even  in  Germany)  as  a  proof 
of  Shakespeare's  appreciation  of  the  innate  relations 
of  poetry  and  music.     It  runs  : 

"If  Music  and  sweet  Poetry  agree, 
As  they  must  needs,  the  Sister  and  the  Brother, 
Then  must  the  love  be  great  'twixt  thee  and  me, 
Because  thou  lov'st  the  one  and  I  the  other. 
Dowland x  to  thee  is  dear,  whose  heavenly  touch 
Upon  the  Lute  doth  ravish  human  sense ; 
Spenser  to  me,  whose  deep  conceit  is  such, 
As  passing  all  conceit,  needs  no  defence. 
Thou  lov'st  to  hear  the  sweet  melodious  sound, 
That  Phoebus'  lute,  the  queen  of  music,  makes; 
And  I  in  deep  delight  am  chiefly  drowned, 
Whenas  himself  to  singing  he  betakes. 
One  god  is  god  of  both,  as  poets  feign ; 
One  knight  loves  both,  and  both  in  thee  remain." 

It  is  a  pity  to  spoil  so  much  of  good  quotation  and 
comment,  but  this  poem,  together  with  the  charming 
"  As  It  Fell  upon  a  Day  "  (also  frequently  attributed 
to  Shakespeare),  is  probably  the  work  of  Richard 
Barnfleld,  whose  poetical  volumes  were  published  be- 
tween 1594  and  1598.  The  thought  embodied  in  the 
verse  is,  however,  very  much  like  that  of  Shakespeare, 
and  it  is  not  impossible  that  he  had  some  hand  in  it. 

1  John  Dowland,  was  the  chief  lutenist  of  the  time ;  he  was  also 
an  excellent  composer  for  this  instrument  and  in  the  vocal  forms. 
He  was  born  1562,  died  1626.  His  son,  Robert  Dowland,  also  became 
famous  in  the  same  field%s  his  father. 


94  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

The  close  connection  between  poetry  and  music,  thus 
voiced  in  the  sixteenth  century,  has  had  many  echoes 
in  our  own  time.  Wagner  has  said,  "  Music  is  the 
handmaid  of  Poetry,"  and  "in  the  wedding  of  the 
two  arts,  Poetry  is  the  man,  Music  the  woman ; 
Poetry  leads  and  Music  follows  ;  "  and  Herbert  Spen- 
cer himself,  in  his  essay  on  "  Education,"  thus 
arraigns  modern  compositions  where  music  and 
poetry  disagree: 

"  They  are  compositions  which  science  would  forbid.  They 
sin  against  science  by  setting  to  music  ideas  that  are  not  emo- 
tional enough  to  prompt  musical  expression,  and  they  also  sin 
against  science  by  using  musical  phrases  that  have  no  natural 
relation  to  the  ideas  expressed :  even  where  these  are  emotional. 
They  are  bad  because  they  are  untrue,  and  to  say  they  are 
untrue  is  to  say  they  are  unscientific." 

Robert  Franz,  in  a  letter  written,  just  before  his 
death,  to  the  author,  says  :"Iam  convinced  that  there 
is  a  much  closer  relationship  between  poetry  and 
music  than  the  average  mind  can  comprehend." 

The  above  are  not  the  only  instances  of  Shake- 
speare's love  of  counterpoint,  or  of  the  combination 
of  poetry  and  music.  In  "  Richard  II."  (Act  ii.  Sc.i), 
the  dying  Gaunt  sends  message  to  the  king  thus : 

"  Gaunt.     O,  but  they  say,  the  tongues  of  dying  men 
Enforce  attention  like  deep  harmony : 
Where  words  are  scarce,  they  are  seldom  spent  in  vain ; 
For  they  breathe  truth,  that  breathe  their  words  in  pain. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  95 

He,  that  no  more  must  say,  is  listen'd  more 
Than  they,  whom  youth  and  ease  have  taught  to  glose ; 
More  are  men's  ends  mark'd,  than  their  lives  before : 
The  setting  sun,  and  music  at  the  close." 

In  "Henry  V."  (Act  i.  Sc.  2)  Exeter  compares 
good  government  to  the  interlacing  of  parts  in  well- 
constructed  music. 

"  For  government,  though  high,  and  low,  and  lower, 
Put  into  parts  doth  keep  in  one  consent ; 
Congruing  in  a  full  and  natural  close, 
Like  music. 

Through  many  other  allusions  one  might  trace  this 
comprehension  of  the  balance  and  symmetry  of 
music,  but  the  quotations  already  cited  are  the  most 
important,  although  one  may  question  the  Shake- 
spearian right  to  the  citation  from  "  The  Passionate 
Pilgrim." 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Musical  Knowledge  of  Shakespeare  (continued)  —  Surer  in  Vocal 
than  in  Instrumental  Work  —  Technical  Vocal  Terms  —  "  Set- 
ting "  a  Tune  —  Burdens  —  Division,  Key,  and  Gamut  —  Plain- 
song, 

The  statement  made  at  the  beginning  of  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  that  Shakespeare  was  surer  of  his 
ground  in  the  vocal  than  in  the  instrumental  field,  is 
borne  out  by  the  ease  and  frequency  with  which  he 
employs  terms  taken  from  the  singer's  technique.  If 
we  may  judge  by  a  sentence  placed  in  the  mouth  of 
Viola  ("  Twelfth  Night,"  Act  i.  Sc.  2),  the  poet  even 
knew  of  voices  that  were  seldom  heard  in  England 
in  his  time,  and  the  duke,  speaking  to  the  heroine, 
in  the  fourth  scene  of  the  same  act,  describes  her 

voice  with  — 

"  thy  small  pipe 
Is  as  the  maiden's  organ,  shrill,  and  sound 
And  all  is  semblative  a  woman's  part." 

One  of  the  scenes  that  is  brimful  of  musical  terms, 
and  one  in  which  almost  all  these  terms  belong  to 
the  singer's  art,  is  found  in  "  Two  Gentlemen  of 
Verona"  (Act  i.  Sc.  2),  where  Lucetta  endeavours, 
by  trickery,  to   bring  the  note  written  by  Proteus 

96 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  97 

to  the  all  too  willing,  yet  seemingly  recalcitrant, 
Julia.  Lucetta  lets  the  note  drop,  and  picks  it  up 
in  a  manner  to  attract  Julia's  attention. 

"Julia.     What  is't  you  took  up  so  gingerly  ? 

Lucetta.     Nothing. 

Julia.     Why  didst  thou  stoop,  then  ? 

Lucetta.     To  take  a  paper  up,  that  I  let  fall. 

Julia.     And  is  that  paper  nothing  ? 

Lucetta.     Nothing  concerning  me. 

Julia.     Then  let  it  lie  for  those  that  it  concerns. 

Lucetta.     Madam,  it  will  not  lie  where  it  concerns, 
Unless  it  have  a  false  interpreter. 

Julia.     Some  love  of  yours  hath  writ  to  you  in  rhyme. 

Lucetta.     That  I  might  sing  it,  madam,  to  a  tune : 
Give  me  a  note :  your  ladyship  can  set. 

Julia.     As  little  by  such  toys  as  may  be  possible : 
Best  sing  it  to  the  tune  of  *  Light  o'  love.' 

Lucetta.     It  is  too  heavy  for  so  light  a  tune. 

Julia.     Heavy?  belike,  it  hath  some  burden  then. 

Lucetta.     Ay ;  and  melodious  were  it,  would  you  sing  it 

Julia.     And  why  not  you  ? 

Lucetta.     I  cannot  reach  so  high. 

Julia.     Let's  see  your  song.  —  How  now,  minion  ? 

Lucetta.     Keep  tune  there  still,  so  you  will  sing  it  out ; 
And  yet,  methinks,  I  do  not  like  this  tune. 

Julia.     You  do  not  ? 

Lucetta.     No,  madam,  it  is  too  sharp. 

Julia.     You,  minion,  are  too  saucy. 

Lucetta.     Nay,  now  you  are  too  flat, 
And  mar  the  concord  with  too  harsh  a  descant : 
There  wanteth  but  a  mean  to  fill  your  song. 

Julia.     The  mean  is  drown'd  with  your  unruly  bass. 

Lucetta.     Indeed,  I  bid  the  base  for  Proteus. 

Julia.     This  babblfcshall  not  henceforth  trouble  me. 


98  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Here  is  a  coil  with  protestation !  —  [Tears  the  letter.} 

Go,  get  you  gone :  and  let  the  papers  lie : 
You  would  be  fingering  them,  to  anger  me. 

Lucetta.     She  makes  it  strange ;  but  she  would  be   best 
pleased 
To  be  so  anger'd  with  another  letter.  [Exit." 

This  scene  could  easily  give  rise  to  an  entire  chap- 
ter of  musical  comment  and  elucidation. 

"  Give  me  a  note :  your  ladyship  can  set," 

proves  Julia  especially  musical.  To  "  set  "  a  tune 
meant  to  give  its  first  note  to  the  singers,  without 
aid  of  tuning-fork  (which  implement  was  only  in- 
vented in  171 1,  by  John  Shore,  an  Englishman)  or 
instrument.  Many  are  the  rules  given  regarding 
"  setting "  in  the  old  instruction  books ;  we  quote 
from  Playford's  "  Introduction  to  the  Skill  of 
Musick." 

"  Observe,  that  in  the  Tuning  your  Voice  you  strive  to 
have  it  clear.  Also  in  the  expressing  your  Voice,  or  Tuning 
of  Notes,  let  the  Sound  come  clear  from  your  Throat,  and 
not  through  your  Teeth,  by  sucking  in  your  Breath,  for  that 
is  a  great  obstruction  to  the  clear  utterance  of  the  Voice. 

"  Lastly,  observe,  that  in  Tuning  your  first  note  of  your 
Plain  Song,  you  equal  it  so  to  the  pitch  of  your  Voice,  that 
when  you  come  to  your  highest  Note,  you  may  reach  it  with- 
out squeaking,  and  your  lowest  Note  without  grumbling." 

In  the  Puritan  churches  "  setting  a  tune  "  was  a 
task  of  considerable  importance  and  difficulty,  since 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  99 

instruments  were  seldom  tolerated,  least  of  all  the 

organ,  which  smacked  of  the  Church  of  Rome.     An 

instance  may  be  cited  from  Puritan  days  in  America, 

regarding    "  setting ;"  we  quote  from    the  diary  of 

Samuel  Sewall,  of  Boston,  the  date  being  December 

28,  1705  : 

"  Sixth  Day,  Dec.  28th. 
"  Mr.  Pemberton  prays  excellently,  and  Mr.  Willard  preaches 
from  Ps.  66,  2o,  very  excellently.  Spake  to  me  to  set  the 
Tune.  I  intended  Windsor,  and  fell  into  High  Dutch,1  and 
then,  essaying  to  set  another  Tune,  went  into  a  key  much  too 
high.  So  I  prayed  Mr.  White  to  set  it;  which  he  did  well, 
Lichf.  tune.  The  Lord  humble  me  and  instruct  me  that  I 
should  be  occasion  of  any  interruption  in  the  worship  of  God." 

The  above  citation  may  readily  show  the  difficul- 
ties of  "setting"  if  one  was  not  possessed  of  the 
rare  faculty  of  absolute  pitch. 

The  next  line  requiring  attention  is 

"  Best  sing  it  to  the  tune  of  ■  Light  o'  Love.' " 

This  tune  seems  to  have  been  a  favourite  with 
Shakespeare,  for  he  alludes  to  it  again  in  a  promi- 
nent manner  in    "Much   Ado  About  Nothing,"  in 

1  The  editor  of  the  "  Diary  "  falls  into  a  quaint  error  in  adding  to 
the  above :  "  From  the  context  we  infer  that  to  ■  fall  into  High 
Dutch'  was  to  sing  at  too  low  a  pitch."  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
"  High  Dutch  "  was  the  Puritan  name  for  "  Canterbury,"  and  the 
worthy  judge  had  actually  gone  into  the  wrong  tune ;  "  Windsor" 
was  the  intended  melody,  and  ■  Litchfield  "  the  tune  eventually  set 
by  "  Mr.  White." 


100 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


......  Act  iii.  Sc.  4  (see  chapter  on  dances),  and  in  both 

cases  he  alludes  to  the  lightness  of  the  tune.  Nor 
was  our  poet  the  only  one  who  recognised  the  dainty 
^^ character  of  the  melody,  for  in  Fletcher's  "Two 
Noble  Kinsmen,"  the  jailer's  daughter  speaks  of  a 
horse  with  the  simile : 

"  He  gallops  to  the  tune  of  *  Light  o'  Love.' " 

Yet  the  melody   itself  is  not    rapid.      Fortunately, 
it  exists  in  its  original  state,  and  we  reproduce  it  for 
k  the  benefit  of  the  reader  who  desires   to  note   the 
fitness  of  Shakespeare's  mention  of  it. 


"LIGHT   O'   LOVE." 

(  Twice  mentioned  by  Shakespeare.} 
Slowly  and  with  expression. 


*r _...*— «&== -*rJ33JTl.  a££=* 


("V"!     i>^       ■■ mi  r"SS  !  J^^»    2»<f  time  pf>. 


zn 


mm 


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v  \ 


V=t 


tJ 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  IOI 

In  both  allusions  Shakespeare  speaks  of  a  "bur- 
den "  in  the  context.  The  burden  x  was  a  recurring 
phrase  or  figure  which  came  in  after  each  line  or 
each  couplet,  sometimes  at  the  end  of  each  stanza. 
Nothing  is  more  marked  in  connection  with  the  old 
English  music  than  the  constant  use  of  the"  bu'rden* 
and  it  was  an  exception  which  Shakespeare  noted, 
that  "  Light  o'  Love  "  went  without  a  burden."  :Sonie 
of  the  refrains  or  burdens  go  back  to  a  very  remote 
antiquity.  We  have  already  seen  that  "  Hey  Troly, 
loly,"  an  old  Scottish  ejaculation  of  sadness,  grad- 
ually metamorphosed  itself  into  "  Tol  de  Rol  "  and 
"Fol  de  Rol,"  as  used  in  bacchanalian  music.  Old- 
est of  all  the  burdens  was  the  phrase,  "  Derry, 
Derry  down,"  or,  "  Hey  Derry  down."  Etymolo- 
gists have  traced  this  phrase  back  to  Norman  Eng- 
land, to  the  Danish  days,  and  even  to  the  Saxon  epoch, 
only  to  have  it  elude  them  at  last.  It  is  considered 
probable  that  the  words  are  of  Druidic  origin. 

Often  the  burden  consisted  simply  of  a  repetition 
of  the  syllables  "  Fa  la  la  "  at  the  end  of  each  line  or 
verse  ;  in  this  case  the  song  was  called  a  "  Fa-la." 
Morley  and  Hilton,  both  prominent  in  Shakespeare's 
time,  wrote  many  beautiful  "  Fa-las."  We  present  a 
facsimile  of  one  of  Morley's  arranged  as  a  duet  by 

1  We  shall  find  more  about  the  "  burden  "  in  connection  with  the 
bacchanalian  music  of  "  Twelfth  Night,"  and  the  songs  of  Ophelia 
in  "  Hamlet."  %, 


102  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

Playford.  The  peculiar  position  of  the  two  parts  is 
explained  by  the  fact  that  the  singers  sat,  or  stood, 
with  the  music  between  them,  and  faced  each  other, 
instead  of  being  side  by  side.1 

Of  the  running  accompaniment  of  puns  in  the 
scene  between  Julia  and  Lucetta  it  is  unnecessary 
tc  speak.     We  now  come  to  the  line, — 

"  And  mar  the  concord  with  too  harsh  a  descant." 

The  word  "  descant "  leads  us  back  to  the  matter 
of  Tybalt's  fencing  in  the  manner  of  the  counting 
of  prick-song.  In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have 
explained  the  written  descant  which  was  called  by 
this  name.  Naturally,  the  freer  descant  which  was 
improvised  was  of  distinctly  inferior  quality,  yet  it 
speaks  much  for  England's  musical  abilities  that 
every  cultured  person  was  able  to  add  a  descant  to 
any  melody  at  a  first  hearing.  The  very  title  of 
Morley's  famous  work  on  music,  published  in  1597, 
gives  some  insight  into  the  two  methods,  for  it  runs, 

"  A  Plaine  and  Easie  Introduction  to  Practicall  Musicke. 
Set  downe  in  forme  of  a  Dialogue  :  Devided  into  three  Partes : 
The  first  teacheth  to  sing  with  all  things  necessary  for  the 
knowledge  of  a  prickt  Song.  The  second  teacheth  of  descante 
and  to  sing  two  parts  in  one  upon  a  plain  song  or  Ground, 
with  other  things  for  a  Descanter,"  — 

1  Burdens  and  refrains  will  be  further  spoken  of  in  Chapter  X. 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


IO3 


the  Sffl  of  Muftck. 


T.M. 

m 

Ow  is  the  Month  of  Maying,  when  merry 
Lads  are,play  jng,  Fa  la  la  la9  &c. 
Each  with  his  bonny  Lafs  upon  the  greeny  graft, 
FaUUUU^&c. 

*sjbj§  Ati33jg  aip  uodn  sjirj  Auuoq  siq  ipiM  ipeg 

ipi 


.  ^iniiaqM^iG^joqjuo^aqq.siMO 


104  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

while  the  third  part  goes  into  the  details  of  composi- 
tion. In  the  second  part,  Morley  has  annotated  his 
views  on  the  matter  of  this  extemporaneous  addition 
of  one  or  two  parts  to  a  ground.  He  speaks  of  it  as 
follows : 

"  As  for  singing  upon  a  plain-song,  it  hath  byn  in  times  past 
in  England  (as  every  man  knoweth)  and  is  at  this  day  in  other 
places,  the  greatest  part  of  the  usual  Musicke  which  in  any 
churches  is  sung,  which  indeed  causeth  me  to  marvel  how  men 
acquainted  with  musicke  can  delight  to  hear  suche  confusion, 
as  of  force  must  bee  amongste  so  many  singing  extempore. 
But  some  have  stood  in  an  opinion,  which  to  me  seemeth  not 
very  probable,  that  is  that  men  accustomed  to  descanting  will 
sing  together  upon  a  plain-song  without  singing  either  false 
chords,  or  forbidden  descant  one  to  another,  which  till  I  see 
I  will  ever  think  unpossible.  For,  though  they  should  all  be 
most  excellent  men,  and  every  one  of  their  lessons  by  itself 
never  so  well  framed  for  the  ground,  yet  it  is  unpossible  for 
them  to  be  true  one  to  another,  except  one  man  should  cause 
all  the  reste  to  sing  the  same  which  he  sung  before  them  :  and 
so  indeed  (if  he  have  studied  the  canon  beforehand)  they  shall 
agree  without  errors,  else  they  shall  never  do  it." 

The  art  of  free  descant  was  taught  even  to  the 
children  of  the  Royal  Chapel,  a  degree  of  musical 
education  that  must  astonish  the  music  teachers  of 
the  present  age. 

The  lack  of  a  "mean "  or  middle  part  to  Lucetta's 
supposed  harmony  requires  no  especial  explanation 
(see  the  pun  on  "  singing  a  mean  most  meanly," 
"  Love's  Labour's  Lost,"  Act  v.  Sc.  2),  nor  does  the 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  105 

"  unruly  bass  "  take  us  far  from  modern  part-singing, 
but  the  bidding  of  the  base  for  Proteus  suddenly 
takes  the  punning  out  of  the  domain  of  music  into 
the  realm  of  old  English  games.  The  sport  was 
called  "  Base,"  or  "  Prisoner's  Bars,"  and  Shake- 
speare alludes  to  it  again  in  "  Cymbeline "  (Act  v. 
Sc.  3),  with  the  lines,  — 

"  He  with  two  striplings,  lads  more  like  to  run 
The  country  base,  than  to  commit  such  slaughter, 
Made  good  the  passage." 

The  game  was  certainly  as  old  as  the  time  of 
Edward  III.,  for  it  is  mentioned  in  one  of  his 
edicts.1 

The  melody  which  formed  the  core  around  which 
the  descant  entwined  itself  was  called  the  "plain- 
song."  Shakespeare  alludes  to  the  plain-song  in 
"  Henry  V."  (Act  iii,  Sc.  2),  where  Falstaff's  three 
worthies  are  pictured  in  the  midst  of  battle. 

"  Bardolph.    On,  on,  on,  on,  on  !  to  the  breach,  to  the  breach  ! 
Nym.      'Pray  thee,  corporal,  stay ;  the  knocks  are  too  hot ; 
and  for  mine  own  part,  I  have  not  a  case  of  lives ;  the  humour 
of  it  is  too  hot,  that  is  the  very  plain-song  of  it. 

Pistol.  The  plain-song  is  most  just;  for  humours  do 
abound ; 

Knocks  go  and  come ;  God's  vassals  drop  and  die ; 
And  sword  and  shield, 
In  bloody  field, 
Doth  win  immortal  fame." 

8  See  Strutt's  "  Sports^nd  Pastimes  "  (Hone's  Edition),  page  78. 


106  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

If  the  plain-song  were  given  by  the  bass  voice 
and  were  repeated  over  and  over,  to  constantly 
varied  descant,  it  was  called  a  "ground-bass."  Noth- 
ing delighted  the  old  composers  more  than  to  show 
their  ingenuity  by  writing,  as  prick-song,  a  set  of 
such  variations  to  the  repeating  "ground."  We 
give  a  facsimile  of  a  "  ground-bass,"  with  its  changing 
descant,  as  composed  by  England's  great  composer, 
Henry  Purcell. 

But  probably  the  surest  proof  of  Shakespeare's 
vocal  proficiency  is  found  in  his  evident  knowledge 
of  "  Gamut,"  or  "  Sol-fa-ing."  This  is  the  vocalist's 
ability  to  recognise  the  intervals  between  notes,  and 
the  pitch  of  the  notes  themselves,  by  syllables  that 
have  been  attached  to  them.  These  syllables  were 
first  used  in  Italy,  were  the  invention  of  Guido 
D'Arezzo,  and  came  from  the  practical  application 
of  the  first  syllables  of  each  line  (except  the  last) 
of  a  hymn  to  St.  John,  the  patron  of  singers,  in 
which  each  phrase  of  the  music  began  one  degree 
higher  than  its  predecessor.     The  words  ran, — 


"  Utqueant  laxis 
Resonare  fibris, 
Mira  gestorum, 
Famuli  tuorum, 
Solve  polluti, 
Labii  reatum, 
Sancte  Johannes,"  • 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


I07 


Ab  e?enj*(g  arM*c 


Ok«GKKK& 


w-yris  b,  6n  William  Met,  Z* « Lmlfffo  <f  Lfec6l& 


^1^^^ 


Si 


veil'd  his  Lighted  hid  the  World  good  night}  to  the   foft   Bed  *  to  the  foft,  the  Sstt 


tni.mmtm^ap 


Bed  my  Body  I  difpofe,but  vrhere,where  Call  my  Sool  repofe  ?  Dear,  dear  God,  eteo  in  thy 

f  43 


^^^SiSSS 


^mm^^^&^^^mmM 


Arms,  ev'n   in  thy  Arms,  and  can  there  be     a— -ay   fo  firee- 


mm 


—t   Se-co- 

■    6  mi 


ty  1  Can  there  be ,     any  lb  fweet,  fo  fweet  Se-cu  —  ri— ty  >  Then  to  thy  Ri 


l^g^gi^llppgSiiSiijljsi 


io8 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


CO 


Soul! 


Then  to  thy  reft,     O  my  Sonl ! and  Cn. 


-gWg£raiietiic 


^^HSUfS^^H 


HsliPf 


HJltkjab,  mitU — —  ;afc,&ii— — U-k, 


^lifiiigliiiBg^l^g^^ 


f4&H*l 


—  U-lu-j*h%  HJkkjab,  Halld*—— j«b,Hd- 


^&m$&^@fflmgR^&m 


Jt-lu  -J*h,  Hal- 


U—U-*-jJ>*  Utile- 


grgr^zrr^j^ 


m 


im-}J>,  Hd-le—k-jeL,  Hal - 


ftfjfffl  Halle. 


Sr*: 


j;ip£Pli=gpi=^gf^ 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


in 


mmmmm$m$m 


tujjd,  Hel-i*-iu-jai:JHal-le~lu-\,JiJtial 


^^^g{Eg|^iigJ^| 


'F^fM 


li^^^Kp 


M—lu—fab .    Hal  * ■  - 


p£j%l^f;s5E^$$g? 


Hm^M 


Mr  tf wrr;  i>««A 


which  may  be  translated,  "That  thy  servants  may 
be  able  to  sing  the  praise  of  thy  wondrous  deeds 
with  all  their  strength,  cleanse  their  lips  from  all 
stain  of  sin,  Oh !  St.  John." 

To  the  six  syllables,  "  si "  was  added  at  a  later 
epoch,  "ut"  was  changed  to  "do,"  and  our  vocal 
scale  evolved.  But  in  Shakespeare's  day  the  sing- 
ing of  the  syllables  was  not  so  plain  a  matter,  for  a 
new  and  more  intricate  system  of  nomenclature  had 
been  made,  in  which  the  syllable  "  mi "  played  a  very 
important  part  and  was  the  especial  clue  to  modula- 
tion. Only  the  four  syllables,  "  fa,  sol,  la,  mi,"  were 
now  used.  We  have  already  cited  the  music  lesson 
in  "  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  "  (quoted  in  Chapter 
III.  because  of  its  connection  with  the  lute),  in 
which  Hortensio  uses  the  vocal  syllables  in  a  very 
deft  manner.  If  the  reader  will  compare  the  follow- 
ing extract   from  ^layford's   "  Introduction   to   the 


I IO  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Skill  of  Musick"  (1664),  with  Hortensio's  phrases, 
he  will  see  how  closely  Shakespeare  had  studied  the 
singer's  phraseology  : x 

"  Having  observed  the  foregoing  direction  of  proving  your 
notes  to  know  their  places,  you  may  easily  know  their  names 
also,  if  you  will  follow  this  rule :  first,  observe  that  Mi  is  the 
principal  or  master  note,  which  leads  you  to  know  all  the  rest; 
for  having  found  out  that,  the  other  follow  upon  course :  and 
this  Mi  hath  its  being  in  four  several  places,  but  it  is  but  in 
one  of  them  at  a  time ;  its  proper  place  is  in  B  mi;  but  if 
B  fa,  which  is  a  B  flat  (as  is  mentioned  in  Chap.  2)  be  put  in 
that  place,  then  it  is  removed  into  E  la  mi,  which  is  its  second 
place ;  but  if  a  B  flat  be  placed  there  also,  then  it  is  in  its 
third  place,  which  is  A  la  mi  rej  if  a  B  flat  come  there  also, 
then  it  is  removed  into  its  fourth  place,  which  is  D  la  sol  re; 
so  that  in  which  of  these  it  is,  the  next  notes  above  it  ascend- 
ing are  Fa  sol  la,  Fa  sol  la,  twice,  and  then  you  meet  with 
your  Mi  again,  for  it  is  sound  but  once  in  eight  notes.  In  like 
manner,  the  next  notes  below  it  descending  are  La  sol  fa,  La 
sol  fa,  and  then  you  have  your  Mi  again:  for  your  better 
understanding  of  which,  observe  the  before-mentioned  old 
metre,  whose  rules  are  plain,  true,  and  easie." 

We  add  a  facsimile  of  the  examples  given,  with 
the  quaint  verses  alluded  to  by  Playford.  That 
Shakespeare  understood  the  complicated  system,  is 
to  our  mind  absolute  proof  of  his  technical  musician- 
ship ;  no  man  not  a  singer  would  take  the  trouble  to 
master  the  cumbrous  nomenclature  and  awkward 
rules.1 

1  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's,  or  Jonson's  allusions  to  music,  are 
always  more  vague  and  less  technical  than  Shakespeare's. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC,  1 1 1 

A  very  subtle  technical  point,  connected  with 
these  syllables,- is  found  in  "King  Lear"  (Act  i. 
Sc.  2),  at  the  entrance  of  Edgar  while  Edmund  is 
plotting  against  him.     Edmund  says  : 

"  And  pat  he  comes,  like  the  catastrophe  of  the  old  comedy : 
My  cue  is  villainous  melancholy,  with  a  sigh  like  Tom  o'  Bed- 
lam. —  O,  these  eclipses  do  portend  these  divisions !  ia,  sol,  la, 


Richard  Grant  White  suggests  that  Edmund  sings 
in  order  to  appear  at  ease.  Burney,  in  his  "  History 
of  Music,"  suggests  that  Shakespeare  has  purposely 
chosen  the  forbidden  interval  of  music  to  illustrate 
the  portent  of  evil.  Knight  believes  that  the  dis- 
cordant sounds  uttered  by  Edmund  fit  the  scene,  but 
are  not  meant  as  a  comparison  with  the  dislocation 
of  events.  The  present  writer  cannot  but  believe 
that  the  poet  who  showed  such  familiarity  with  the 
vocal  progressions,  in  the  "Taming  of  the  Shrew," 
here  presented  the  worst  possible  interval  of  music 
(according  to  the  theory  of  that  time)  as  prognostica- 
tion of  the  discords  to  come.  We  can  conceive  of 
no  other  reason  for  Shakespeare  choosing  exactly  the 
progression  which  every  composer  of  the  epoch  inter- 
dicted ;  nor  was  this  interdict  a  matter  of  passing 
fashion  ;  the  old  monks  made  a  rhyme  about  this 
progression  which  was  familiar  to  every  musician  of 
England,  — 


112  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

An  IntroduBion  to 

ner,  the  Notes  next  below  it  defending 
are  La  fol  fa.  La  fol  fa  9  and  then  you  have 
your  Mi  again:  For  your  better  undeman- 
ding of  which,  obferve  the  before-mentio- 
ned old  Metre ,  whofe  Rules  are  plain,  true, 
and  eafie. 

No  man  can  fing  trite  at  frfl  fight \ 
linlefs  he  names  his  Notes  aright: 
which  foon  is  learnt ,  if  that your Mi 
Ton  know  its  PJace  where  e're  it  be. 


I. 


If  that  no  Flat  he  fet  in  B, 
Then  in  that  Place Jlandeth  your  Mi. 


m 


■Example.  ~^~^z~§~t~&~$:zt 

r    ig::$z:t-&z:%zz2:zzz:zzzLZzz:zl 

Sol  la  Mi  fa  fol  la  fa  fol 

>*$faBnu.    fat  if  ymr  *b  done  be  Flat, 
\*e  U  mi.      rhen  *Eis  Mi,  be  fur  e  of  that. 

-Example.  ^t:==:r— ::gr.§r:sr:S=:^{ 

r     ^zz$z:3$z&zzxzrJtz:z:z:zzz:zzz& 

Sol  la  fa  Jol  la  Mi  fa  fd 
3-Y 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  I  1 3 

the  SkiU  of  Uuftct 

if  both  be  Flat ,  your hand E, 
\*A  U  mi  re.    Then  *A  it  Mi  here  you  may  fee. 

Example.  |fej|=i:§=|=:^=|| 

La  Mi  fa  fol  la  fa  fol  U* 

If  all  be  Flat,  E,A,andB, 
\*D  U  fol     Then  Mi  alone  dothjland  in  *D. 

EXample.||||!jp^:E;|:|§|| 

£a/rf  /*/  1*  Mi  fa  fol  la 


Thefrji  three  Notes  above  your  Mi 
c^Vtf  fa  fol  la,  here  you  may  fee  ; 
The  next  three  under  Mi  that  fall, 
Them  la  fol  fa  you  ought  to  call. 


m 


Example. 
BLr  fr  +  ftr    '     Y  y^^-^*  o  y  a  yt 

StflaMfafol  la  fa  fol  fa  la  fol  fa  Mi  &/*//* 


if  you'll  ft ng  true  without  all  blame* 
Ton  call  all  Eights  by  the  fame  name. 


Exam- 


114  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

"  Mi  contra  Fa, 
Diabolus  est  in  Musica,"  — 


v        fa,         sol,        la,        mi. 

calling  this  set  of  notes  "  the  Devil."  *  We  therefore 
believe,  with  Burney,  that  this  is  one  of  the  most 
technical  musical  points  in  all  Shakespeare.  Fur- 
ness  (Variorum  Edition),  however,  presents  several 
opinions  to  the  contrary.  2 

Less  remarkable  is  the  allusion  to  "  sol-fa  "  in  the 
11  Taming  of  the  Shrew "  (Act  i.  Sc.  2),  where 
Petruchio  intimidates  his  servant : 

"  Grumio.     My  master  has  grown  quarrelsome :    I   should 

knock  you  first, 
And  then  I  know  after  who  comes  by  the  worst. 

Petruchio.     Will  it  not  be  ? 
'Faith,  sirrah,  an  you'll  not  knock,  I'll  wring  it; 
I'll  try  how  you  can  'sol,  fa,'  and  sing  it. 

[He  wrings  Grumio  by  the  ears. 
Grumio.     Help,  masters,  help  !  my  master  is  mad." 

In  "  Love's  Labour's  Lost,"  Act  iv.  Sc.  2,  Holo- 

1  According  to  the  gamut  described  above ;  to-day  the  syllables 
would  be  "  fa,  sol,  la,  si ; "  they  constitute  a  "  tritone,"  i.  e.  a  suc- 
cession of  three  whole  tones. 

2  Furness's  own  opinion,  Vol.  V.,  p.  55,  is  that  Edmund  sings 
"Fa,  sol,  la,  mi,"  —  "just  as  Mistress  Quickly  sings  'and  down, 
down,  adown-a'  in  "  Merry  Wives,"  i.  3.  44,  when  Doctor  Caius  is 
approaching." 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  II  5 

femes  uses    the   vocal  syllables  in  singing,  but  this 
passage  is  unimportant. 

In  the  disputed  passage  from  "  King  Lear,"  the 
word  "  division  "  is  used  in  a  punning  sense.  The 
divisions  of  the  royal  family  are  patent  enough,  but 
in  music  "division"  also  had  a  particular  meaning; 
it  was  the  breaking  of  a  melody,  or  its  descant, 
into  small  notes,  as,  for  example,1 

Division  of  foregoing. 


In  1659  Christopher  Simpson  published  a  work 
for  viol,  in  which  he  says  : 

"  Diminution,  or  division  to  a  ground,  is  the  breaking  either 
of  the  base  or  of  any  higher  part  that  is  applicable  thereto." 

The  modern  musician  would  call  it  variation. 

In  the  chamber-scene  of  "Romeo  and  Juliet" 
(Act  iii.  Sc.  5),  Shakespeare  uses  the  word  "divi- 
sion," and  once  more  in  a  punning  way,  for  even 
in  the  most  earnest  scenes  our  poet  cannot  resist 
the  temptation  to  play  upon  words.  The  passage 
occurs  after  Juliet  pleads  with  her  lover  to  stay, 
urging  that  it  was  the  nightingale,  and  not  the  lark, 
whose  notes  they  had  heard.  She  at  last  yields  to 
their  separation  with  — 

■  See  example  of  PurcelPs  "  Ground  Bass,"  page  103,  for  a  fuller 
illustration  of  this.        ^ 


Il6  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

"  Juliet.     It  is,  it  is,  hie  hence,  be  gone,  away ; 
It  is  the  lark  that  sings  so  out  of  tune, 
Straining  harsh  discords,  and  unpleasing  sharps. 
Some  say,  the  lark  makes  sweet  division ; 
This  doth  not  so,  for  she  divideth  us : 
Some  say,  the  lark  and  loathed  toad  change  eyes; 
O,  now  I  would  they  had  changed  voices  too ! 
Since  arm  from  arm  that  voice  doth  us  affray, 
Hunting  thee  hence,  with  hunts-up  to  the  day. 
O,  now  be  gone ;  more  light  and  light  it  grows." 

The  "  Hunts-up"  that  Juliet  refers  to  was  a  lively 
hunting-song  in  its  origin,  but  in  Elizabethan  times 
any  lively  song  fitted  for  the  early  morn,  and  even 
an  Aubadey  or  morning  love-song,  was  so  called.  In 
Chapter  X.  will  be  found  a  fuller  analysis  of  these,  with 
a  musical  example.  Division  is  again  spoken  of  in 
the  following  musical  episode  in  "  King  Henry  IV.," 
Part  I.  (Act  iii.  Sc.  I ) : 

"Mortimer.     I  will  never  be  a  truant,  love, 
Till  I  have  learn'd  thy  language ;  for  thy  tongue 
Makes  Welsh  as  sweet  as  ditties  highly  penn'd, 
Sung  by  a  fair  queen  in  a  summer's  bower, 
With  ravishing  division  to  her  lute. 

Glendower.     Nay,  if  you  melt,  then  will  she  run  mad. 

\Lady  Mortimer  speaks  again. 

Mortimer.     O,  I  am  ignorance  itself  in  this. 

Glendower.     She  bids  you, 
Upon  the  wanton  rushes  lay  you  down, 
And  rest  your  gentle  head  upon  her  lap, 
And  she  will  sing  the  song  that  pleaseth  you, 
And  on  your  eye-lids  crown  the  god  of  sleep, 


Juliet.  —  "  O,  now  be  gone  :  more  light  and  light  it  grows." 

(Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  Hi.  Sc.  5.) 
From  the  painting  by  Frank  Dicksee. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  11/ 

Charming  your  blood  with  pleasing  heaviness, 
Making  such  difference  'twixt  wake  and  sleep, 
As  is  the  difference  betwixt  day  and  night, 
The  hour  before  the  heavenly-harness'd  team 
Begins  his  golden  progress  in  the  east. 

Mortimer.     With  all  my  heart  I'll  sit,  and  hear  her  sing; 
By  that  time  will  our  book,  I  think,  be  drawn. 

Glendower.     Do  so : 
And  those  musicians,  that  shall  play  to  you, 
Hang  in  the  air  a  thousand  leagues  from  hence ; 
Yet  straight  they  shall  be  here :  sit,  and  attend. 

[Glendower  speaks  some  Welsh  words •, 
and  then  the  music  plays. 

Hotspur.     Now  I  perceive,  the  devil  understands  Welsh ; 
And  'tis  no  marvel,  he's  so  humourous. 
By'r  lady,  he's  a  good  musician. 

Lady  Percy.  Then  should  you  be  nothing  but  musical :  for 
you  are  altogether  governed  by  humours.  Lie  still,  ye  thief, 
and  hear  the  lady  sing  in  Welsh. 

Hotspur.  I  had  rather  hear  Lady,  my  brach,  howl  in 
Irish. 

Lady  Percy.     Wouldst  thou  have  thy  head  broken  ? 

Hotspur.     No. 

Lady  Percy.     Then  be  still." 


The  notes  of  music  are  often  spoken  of  by  Shake- 
peare  in  a  technical  manner.  The  American  reader 
must  bear  in  mind  that  the  English  nomenclature 
is  derived  from  the  mediaeval  system  which  was  used 
before  the  division  of  music  into  measure ;  thus  the 
semibreve  (meaning  half  of  a  short  note)  is  the  whole 
note,    the   minim    (meaning    the    smallest    note, — 


Il8  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

which  it  was,  in  the  old  monastic  manuscripts)  is  the 
half-note,  the  crotchet  is  the  quarter,  the  quaver 
the  eighth.  We  have  seen  Don  Pedro,  in  "  Much  Ado 
About  Nothing,"  sneer  at  the  "crotchets"  of  Bal- 
thazar, Mercutio  allude  to  Tybalt's  counting  a  minim 
while  fencing  (in  "  Romeo  and  Juliet)  ",  and  in  "  The 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor"  we  find  Falstaff  saying 
of  Bardolph, — 

"  His  thefts  were  too  open ;  his  filching  was  like  an  unskilful 
singer,  he  kept  not  time,  —  " 

whereupon  Nym  responds : 

"  The  good  humour  is  to  steal  at  a  minim's  rest." 

The  Folio  gives  this  as  a  "minutes  rest,"  but 
there  is  not  much  doubt  that  "  minim  "  was  intended. 
To  give  all  the  quotations  concerning  tune  and 
time,  in  which  our  poet  has  made  some  pun,  play  of 
words,  or  musical  jest,  would  be  to  write  a  small 
concordance.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  in  each  case,  not 
above  mentioned,  the  meaning  is  obvious,  and  the 
words  used  in  their  modern  sense. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

The  Dances  of  Shakespeare  —  Many  Dances  Sung  —  The  Dump  — 
Other  Dances.  —  England  Fond  of  Lively  Dances.  —  The  Morris- 
dance.  —  Masques  —  These  Preceded  Operas  in  England. 

The  English  were  a  dancing  people,  in  the  Eliza- 
bethan times,  far  more  so  than  at  present,  yet  there 
was  a  great  difference  between  them  and  the  na- 
tions of  continental  Europe  in  Terpsichorean  matters. 

Most  of  the  old  dances  had  their  origin  in  Spain, 
where  the  Moors  introduced  the  Arabic  love  of 
pantomime  combined  with  music,  and  gave  rise 
to  a  music  that  was  graphic  and  well  contrasted. 
The  majority  of  the  stately  dances  came  from  this 
source.  While  the  aristocracy  of  Europe,  with  a 
partial  exception  of  the  English,  gave  their  adhesion 
to  the  slow  dances,  the  people  took  up  only  those 
that  were  jovial  and  rapid.  The  jig,  for  example, 
was  to  be  found  among  the  peasantry  from  Spain  to 
Ireland,  while  pavanes  and  sarabandes  were  much 
more  restricted  in  their  use. 

It  may  be  necessary  to  state  at  the  threshold  of 
this  subject  that  many  of  the  so-called  "dances"  of 
the  European  courts  were  rather  processionals  than 

119 


120  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

anything  else,  and  some  of  the  aristocratic  dances  (as, 
for  example,  the  passacaglia)  were  merely  a  series  of 
posturings  to  musical  accompaniment.  The  dances 
of  the  peasantry,  on  the  other  hand,  were  almost 
always  "round  dances,"  and  were  of  so  violent  a  de- 
scription that  they  were  sometimes  prohibited  except 
on  certain  specified  days  or  seasons.  Often  these 
more  common  dances  were  given  by  couples,  as  in 
the  waltz,  polka,  mazurka,  etc.,  of  to-day,  but  fre- 
quently they  were  danced  by  several  participants 
taking  each  other's  hands  and  swinging  around 
in  a  large  circle.  These  "  Reigen  "  have  descended 
to  the  children,  in  present  days,  and  are  of  the 
most  remote  antiquity.  The  dance  of  the  Hebrews 
around  the  golden  calf,  the  dance  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians  around  the  bull-god  Apis,  the  dances  of 
the  old  sun-worshippers,  sometimes  around  a  human 
sacrifice,  all  belong  to  this  family. 

Naturally  enough,  we  find  the  most  ancient  dances 
in  England  to  be  those  which  the  peasantry  enjoyed. 
We  have  already  seen  one  of  these  old  dances  in 
«  Sellinger's  Round."     (See  Chapter  III.) 

Among  the  oldest  dances  in  England  we  find  one 
that  is  frequently  alluded  to  by  Shakespeare,  —  the 
morris-dance.  Antiquaries  unite  in  the  belief  that 
this  was  one  of  the  Spanish  dances  that  arose  during 
the  Moorish  possession  in  the  middle  ages.  Its  name 
is  derived  from  "  Morisco,"  a  Moor,  and  it  is  not 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  121 

very  far  removed  from  the  Spanish  fandango  of  the 
present.  It  was  known  in  France  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  was  there  called  "  Morisque."  In  Eng- 
land its  character  underwent  a  change,  and  it  seems 
to  have  united  with  an  earlier  dance,  a  sort  of  panto- 
mime, in  which  the  deeds  of  Robin  Hood  and  his 
Merry  Men  were  celebrated.  There  is  good  reason, 
therefore,  to  suppose  that,  in  spite  of  the  importation 
of  the  dance  from  France  or  Spain,  in  the  morris- 
dance  was  preserved  one  of  the  oldest  pantomimes  of 
England.  Allusions  to  the  morris-dance  are  found 
as  early  as  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  The  chief 
characters  in  the  early  representations  were  Robin 
Hood,  Maid  Marian,  and  Friar  Tuck.  There  was 
also  sometimes  a  clown  or  fool,  and  of  course  a  musi- 
cian or  two  to  accompany  the  dance. 

The  morris -dance  became  indissolubly  associated 
with  the  May-day  festivities,  in  old  England.  The 
dancers  in  the  morris  frequently  indulged  in  the 
effort  to  "  dance  each  other  down,"  so  that  the  ex- 
ercise often  became  a  trial  of  physical  endurance. 
Such  trials  are  very  common  in  the  folk-dances  of 
various  nations,  as  the  jig,  the  hailing,  the  kamar- 
inskaia,  in  Ireland,  Norway,  and  Russia.  The  morris- 
dance  was  frequently  a  sort  of  progress  by  leaps  and 
twirls,  and  we  read  of  dancers  keeping  this  up  all  the 
way  from  one  town  to  another,  as  William  Kemp  did 
in   1599,  making  th£  journey  from  London  to  Nor- 


122  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

wich  in  four  weeks  and  dancing  the  morris  for  nine 
days.  This  same  William  Kemp,  or  Kempe,  con- 
cerns the  Shakespearian  nearly,  for  he  is  asserted  to 
have  been  the  original  Dogberry,  in  "  Much  Ado 
About  Nothing,"  and  Peter,  in  "  Romeo  and  Juliet." 
He  made  a  trip  to  France  to  perfect  his  dancing. 
He  was  the  most  popular  clown  and  comedian  of 
Shakespeare's  time,  so  much  so  that  the  author  of 
the  "  Return  from  Parnassus  "  says  that  "  he  is  not 
counted  a  gentleman  that  knows  not  Will  Kempe." 
A  song  was  written  about  him,  which  was  set  to 
music  by  no  less  a  composer  than  Thomas  Weelkes. 
It  ran : 

"  Since  Robin  Hood,  Maid  Marian, 
And  Little  John  are  gone  a ; 

The  Hobby-horse  was  quite  forgot, 
When  Kempe  did  dance  alone  a. 

He  did  labour  after  the  Tabor 

For  to  dance,  then  into  France 

He  took  pains 

To  skip  it. 

In  hope  of  gains 

He  will  trip  it, 

On  the  toe 

Diddle  do." 

He  was  a  favourite  at  court  and  probably  a  personal 
friend  of  Shakespeare. 

As  a  good  example  of  the  morris-dance  we  here 
reproduce  a  famous  one  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  one  that  is  alluded  to  by  Shakespeare  in  "  Love's 


fff'y 


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SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


123 


Labour's  Lost "  (Act  iv.  Sc.  2)  where  Holofernes 
says  to  Jaquenetta:  "Trip  and  go,  my  sweet," 
"  Trip  and  Go  "  being  the  title  of  one  of  the  cheeriest 
of  morris-dances. 


Lively. 


'♦TRIP   AND   GO." 

(A  17th  century  Morris  Dance.) 


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1 


124  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Shakespeare  also  mentions  the  dance  and  its 
season,  very  effectively,  in  "All's  Well  That  Ends 
Well "  (Act  ii.  Sc.  2),  where  the  clown  speaks  of 
the  fitness  of  his  answers  to  the  countess : 

"  As  fit  as  a  pancake  for  Shrove  Tuesday,  or  a  morris  for 
a  May-day." 

In  "  Henry  V."  (Act  ii.  Sc.  4),  the  Dauphin  speaks 
of  the  boldness  with  which  the  French  should  pro- 
ceed against  the  English,  with  the  words : 

"  And  let  us  do  it  with  no  show  of  fear ; 
No,  with  no  more  than  if  we  heard  that  England 
Were  busied  with  a  Whitsun  morris-dance." 

That  the  morris-dance  was  known  to  Shakespeare, 
and  that  he  may  have  seen  it  danced,  often  enough, 
may  be  taken  for  granted.  - 

Oliphant,  in  his  "  Musa  Madrigalesca "  (p.  71), 
quotes  Laneham's  letter  to  Humphrey  Martin,  Mer- 
cer, in  London,  concerning  the  festivities  at  Kenil- 
worth,  in  1575,  before  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  which 
occurred  a  morris-dance. 

"  Thus  they  were  marshalled :  first  all  the  lusty  lads  and 
bold  Bachelors  of  the  parish,  sutablie  every  wight  with  his 
blue  buckram  bride-lace  upon  a  branch  of  green  broom  (be- 
cause Rosemary  is  scant  there)  tied  on  his  left  arm,  (for  on 
that  side  lies  the  heart)  in  martial  order  ranged  on  before,  two 
and  two  in  a  rank ;  some  with  a  hat,  some  in  a  cap ;  some 
a  coat,  some  a  jerkin ;  some  for  lightness  in  his  doublet  and 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  12$ 

hose ;  some  boots  and  no  spurs,  some  spurs  and  no  boots,  and 
some  neither  nother.  Then  the  Bridegroom  foremost,  in  his 
tawney  worsted  jacket  (for  his  friends  were  fain  that  he  should 
be  a  Bridegroom  before  the  Queen,)  and  a  fair  strawn  hat  with 
a  capital  crown,  steeplewise  on  his  head. 

"  Well,  sir,  after  these  a  lively  Morris  dance  according  to 
the  ancient  manner ;  six  dancers,  Maid  Marian,  and  the  Fool. 
Then  three  pretty  puzels  ■  as  bright  as  a  breast  of  bacon,  of 
thirty  year  old  apiece,  that  carried  three  special  spice-cakes 
of  a  bushel  of  wheat,  (they  had  it  by  measure  out  of  my  Lord's 
bakehouse,)  before  the  bride,  with  set  countenance,  and  lips  so 
demurely  simpering  as  it  had  been  a  mare  cropping  a  thistle. 
After  these  comes  a  freckle-faced,  red-headed  lubber,  whose 
office  was  to  bear  the  bride-cup  all  seemly  besilvered  and  par- 
cel (partly)  gilt,  adorned  with  a  beautiful  bunch  of  broom 
gaily  begilded  for  memory.  This  gentle  cupbearer  yet  had 
his  freckled  phizonemy  somewhat  unhappily  infested  as  he 
went,  by  the  busy  flies  that  flocked  about  the  bride  cup  for  the 
sweetness  of  the  sucket  that  it  savoured  of ;  but  he  like  a  tall 
fellow,  withstood  them  stoutly,  beat  them  away,  killed  them 
by  scores,  stood  to  his  charge,  and  marched  on  in  good  order. 
Then  followed  the  worshipful  bride,  led  (after  the  country 
manner)  between  two  ancient  parishioners,  honest  townsmen ; 
a  thirty-year-old,  of  colour  brown  bay,  not  very  beautiful  in- 
deed, but  ugly,  foul,  and  ill  favoured  ;  yet  marvellous  fain 
of  the  office,  because  she  heard  say  she  should  dance  before 
the  Queen,  in  which  feat  she  thought  she  would  foot  it  as 
finely  as  the  best." 

Many  of  the  old  dances  were  sung.  The  very 
word  "  ballad  "  may  have  been  derived  from  ballare 
(Italian),  to  dance,  and  some  of  the  old  song-dances 


8  Maids  — •  from  the  French  pucelle. 


1 26  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

were  called  "  ballets."     In  one  of  Morley's  "  ballets," 
Thyrsis  and  Chloris  are  described  : 

"...  They  danced  to  and  fro,  and  finely  flaunted  it, 
And  then  both  met  again,  and  thus  they  chaunted  it." 

One  of  Weelkes's  refrains  runs  — 

"  All  shepherds  in  a  ring, 
Shall  dancing  ever  sing/* 

It  must  have  been  a  pretty  sight  to  watch  the 
singers  giving  expression,  not  only  to  the  character 
of  the  music,  but  also  to  the  words  which  accom- 
panied many  (but  by  no  means  all)  of  the  old  dances, 
and  Bottom  is  not  inaccurate  in  "  Midsummer-Night's 
Dream  "  (Act  v.  Sc.  2),  when  he  invites  the  dujce  to 
"hear  a  Bergomask  dance."  As  long  ago  as  the 
time  of  the  troubadours  and  minnesingers  there 
were  dances  with  poetry  attached  to  them,  and  in 
France,  especially,  these  dances  were  often  of  the 
most  graceful  description.  We  give  an  example  of 
such  a  dance  which  was  popular  in  France  before 
Shakespeare's  time;  this  dance  probably  became 
known  even  in  the  English  courts,  for  the  roman- 
esca  was  a  species  of  galliard,  a  dance  to  which 
Shakespeare  alludes  more  than  once. 

But  there  were  also  dances  of  more  boisterous 
character,  with  words  attached.  We  have  already 
spoken  of  the  great  antiquity  of  the  circle  dances 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


127 


LA   ROMANESCA. 

Air  de  Danse. 
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la  -  ge  ;       M§lez,charmantshautbois,  Un  doux  ra-mage  ; 
sighing  ;     Then  let  the  oboes  play , Sweet  notes  replying  ; 


Et  par  vos  accords ,  Sur  la  ver-te  fou-ge  -  re  Attirez 

Echoes  shall  awake,  At  the  tone  so  entrancing      And  swiftly 


128 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


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SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


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SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  1 33 

which  seem  to  have  been  the  heritage  of  the  peasantry 
in  all  ages  and  climes.  In  England,  any  dance  in 
which  the  dancers  stood  in  a  circle  was  called  a 
"  round,"  or  a  "  roundel,"  which  may  explain  the 
words  of  Titania  ("  Midsummer  Night's  Dream," 
Act  ii.  Sc.  2), — 

11  Come,  now  a  roundel  and  a  fairy  song,"  — 

which  does  not  mean  that  the  fairies  are  to  sing  a 
round  (more  generally  called  a  "catch"  in  Shake- 
speare's day),  but  that  they  were  to  dance  a  circular 
dance  with  a  poem  attached,  which  was  to  be  sung  by 
the  dancers  themselves. 

"  Twelfth  Night "  and  "  Much  Ado  About  Noth- 
ing," are  the  two  plays  that  have  the  most  interesting 
and  the  most  copious  allusions  to  dancing,  and  these 
allusions  are  so  detailed  and  exact  that  one  cannot 
help  suspecting  that  Shakespeare  was  an  adept  in  the 
art.  In  "  Twelfth  Night "  (Act  i.  Sc.  3),  Sir  Toby 
Belch  grows  rapturous  over  his  friend  (Sir  Andrew 
Aguecheek)  and  his  dancing : 

"  Sir  Andrew.  I'll  stay  a  month  longer.  I  am  a  fellow  o' 
the  strangest  mind  i'  the  world;  I  delight  in  masques  and 
revels  sometimes  altogether. 

Sir  Toby.     Art  thou  good  at  these  kickshaws,  knight  ? 

Sir  Andrew.  As  any  man  in  Illyria,  whatsoever  he  be, 
under  the  degree  of  my  betters,  and  yet  I  will  not  compare 
with  an  old  man. 

Sir  Toby.     What  ifcthy  excellence  in  a  galliard,  knight? 


134  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Sir  Andrew.     'Faith,  I  can  cut  a  caper. 

Sir  Toby.     And  I  can  cut  the  mutton  to  't. 

Sir  Atidrew.  And,  I  think,  I  have  the  back-trick,  simply 
as  strong  as  any  man  in  Illyria. 

Sir  Toby.  Wherefore  are  these  things  hid  ?  wherefore  have 
these  gifts  a  curtain  before  them  ?  are  they  like  to  take  dust, 
like  mistress  Mall's  picture?  why  dost  thou  not  go  to  church  in 
a  galliard  ?  and  come  home  in  a  coranto  ?  My  very  walk  should 
be  a  jig  !  .  .  .  What  dost  thou  mean?  is  it  a  world  to  hide 
virtues  in?  I  did  think,  by  the  excellent  constitution  of  thy  leg, 
it  was  formed  under  the  star  of  a  galliard. 

Sir  Andrew.  Ay,  'tis  strong,  and  does  indifferent  well  in  a 
flame-coloured  stock.     Shall  we  set  about  some  revels  ? 

Sir  Toby.  What  shall  we  do  else  ?  were  we  not  born  under 
Taurus  ? 

Sir  Andrew.     Taurus  ?  that's  sides  and  heart. 

Sir  Toby.  No,  sir ;  it  is  legs  and  thighs.  Let  me  see  thee 
caper :  ha !  higher :  ha,  ha  I  —  excellent !  [Exeunt." 

We  have  here  an  entire  constellation  of  dances, 
many  of  which  the  reader  can  find  in  the  English  or 
French  suites  of  Bach.  The  galliard,  to  begin  with 
the  first  of  the  list,  was  a  lively  and  rather  difficult 
dance.  In  the  first  prefatory  letter  to  Barnaby  Rich's 
"  Farewell  to  the  Military  Profession  "  (Shakespeare 
Soc.  reprint,  p.  4)  we  read : 

"  Our  galliardes  are  so  curious,  that  thei  are  not  for  my 
daunsyng  for  thei  are  so  full  of  trickes  and  tournes,  that  he 
which  hath  no  more  but  the  plaine  Singuepace  is  no  better 
accumpted  of  than  a  verie  bongler." 

The  galliard  was  generally  in  3-4  rhythm  ;  Prae- 
torius  describes  it  as  — 


V 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  135 

"  An  invention  of  the  devil ;  .  .  .  full  of  shameful  and 
obscene  gestures  and  immodest  movements." 

As  the  dance  came  from  Rome  it  was  sometimes 
called  the  "  Romanesca,"  but  in  Italy  and  in  France 
it  was  less  boisterous  than  it  became  in  England,  as 
may  be  seen  by  the  specimen  of  "  Romanesca  "  which 
we  have  reproduced. 

In  an  unquotable  passage  belonging  to  the  same 
scene,  our  arch-vagabond  makes  reference  to  the 
"  sink-a-pace,"  which  is  the  "  cinq-pas "  (five-step), 
and  also  Barnaby  Rich's  "  Singuepace,"  quoted  above. 
This  is  also  alluded  to  in  "  Much  Ado  About  Noth- 
ing" (Act  ii.  Sc.  1),  where  Beatrice  says  to  Hero  : 

■  The  fault  will  be  in  the  music,  cousin,  if  you  be  not 
wooed  in  good  time :  if  the  prince  be  too  important,  tell  him 
there  is  measure  in  every  thing,  and  so  dance  out  the  answer. 
For  hear  me,  Hero :  Wooing,  wedding,  and  repenting,  is  as  a 
Scottish  jig,  a  measure,  and  a  cinque-pace :  the  first  suit  is  hot 
and  hasty,  like  a  Scottish  jig,  full  as  fantastical ;  the  wedding 
mannerly-modest,  as  a  measure  full  of  state  and  ancientry ; 
and  then  comes  repentance,  and,  with  his  bad  legs,  falls  into 
the  cinque-pace  faster  and  faster,  till  he  sink  into  his  grave." 

We  have  now  a  large  collection  of  dances  upon  our 
hands,  for,  between  Sir  Toby  and  Beatrice,  five  im- 
portant ones  have  been  mentioned.  The  "  cinque- 
pace,"  for  thus  it  was  often  Anglicised,  was  quaintly 
syncopated,  so  that  Beatrice's  connection  of  it  with 
the  wobbly  gait  o^old  age  is  a  peculiarly  apt  one. 


\ 
\ 


136 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


The  cinque-pace  is  said  to  have  been  the  original  of 
the  galliard. 

The  "  measure  "  was  stately  and  elegant,  not  un 
like  in  its  motions  to  the  grace  of  the  minuet.  It  is 
possible  that  the  term  arose  from  the  dance  called 
"passa-mezzo,"  which  was  very  graceful  but  not  as 
slow  as  the  pavane.  In  "Twelfth  Night"  (Act  v. 
Sc.  i),  Sir  Toby  alludes  to  both  of  these  dances  in  a 
single  sentence : 

"  After  a  passy-measure  or  a  pavin  I  hate  a  drunken  rogue." 

The  pavane  was  the  stateliest  of  all  the  4-4  dances, 
and  one  can  readily  understand  the  dissipated  Sir 
Toby  hating  both  the  elegant  dance  and  its  statelier 
sister. 


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It  was  natural  that  Shakespeare  should  indulge  in 
many  a  pun  on  the  word  "measure,"  and  this  dance 
is  repeatedly  spoken  of.  In  "  Love's  Labour's  Lost  " 
(Act  v.  Sc.  2),  a  series  of  puns  is  made  upon  the 
dance  and  the  other  meanings  of  the  word  "meas- 
ure." %. 


I38  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

"  Rosaline.     What  would  they,  say  they  ? 

Boyet.     Nothing  but  peace,  and  gentle  visitation. 

Rosaline.     Why,  that  they  have :  and  bid  them  so  be  gone, 

Boyet.     She  says,  you  have  it,  and  you  may  be  gone. 

King.     Say  to  her,  we  have  measured  many  miles, 
To  tread  a  measure  with  her  on  this  grass. 

Boyet.     They  say  that  they  have  measured  many  a  mile 
To  tread  a  measure  with  you  on  this  grass. 

Rosaline.     It  is  not  so :  ask  them,  how  many  inches 
Is  in  one  mile :  if  they  have  measured  many, 
The  measure  then  of  one  is  easily  told. 

Boyet.     If,  to  come  hither,  you  have  measured  miles 
And  many  miles  ;  the  princess  bids  you  tell, 
How  many  inches  do  fill  up  one  mile. 

Biron.     Tell  her,  we  measure  them  by  weary  steps." 

The  same  pun  is  made  by  the  queen  in  "  Richard 
II."  Act  iii.  Sc.  4. 

The  coranto,  or  courante,  may  be  found  as  the 
second  dance  in  all  of  the  suites  of  Bach  and  in  many 
of  those  of  Handel.  It  was  a  rapidly  running  dance, 
generally  in  3-4  or  in  3-8  rhythm. 

The  jig,  or  gigue,  used  by  the  old  suite  composers 
as  the  finale  of  this  cycle  form,  was  the  most  widely 
known  dance  of  all,  among  the  peasantry  of  every 
country.  It  existed  from  Spain  (where  there  was 
also  a  slow  gigue  called  the  loure)  to  England  and 
Ireland.  The  so-called  Scotch  jig  had  the  wild  im- 
petuosity which  we  associate  to-day  with  the  Irish 
jig.  One  characteristic  of  this  dance  was  its  groups 
of  three  notes  each,  which  suited  best  to  6-8  rhythm, 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  1 39 

although  12-8  and  3-8  were  not  impossible.  Almost 
every  period  ended  with  a  hearty  stamp,  and  the  jig 
became  a  test  of  endurance,  as  the  morris-dance  had 
been  before  it.  The  jig  may  be  classed  as  the  most 
rollicking  and  hearty  of  all  the  dances.  Beatrice 
defines  it  correctly  when  she  calls  it  "  hot  and  hasty." 

The  jumping  and  capering  which  Sir  Toby  de- 
mands of  Sir  Andrew  is  characteristic  of  the  Eng- 
lish dancing  of  the  olden  days,  activity  counting  for 
much  more  than  grace  in  almost  all  the  early  dances. 

In  "  Love's  Labour's  Lost "  (Act  hi.  Sc.  1),  we 
have  another  series  of  dances  alluded  to,  and  again 
are  reminded  of  the  singing  to  one's  own  dancing. 

" Armado.  Warble,  child;  make  passionate  my  sense  of 
hearing. 

Moth.     ■  Concolinel  — ' l  [Singing. 

Armado.  Sweet  air  !  —  Go,  tenderness  of  years ;  take  this 
key,  give  enlargement  to  the  swain,  bring  him  festinately 
hither.     I  must  employ  him  in  a  letter  to  my  love. 

Moth.  Master,  will  you  win  your  love  with  a  French 
brawl  ? 

Armado.     How  mean'st  thou  ?  brawling  in  French  ? 

Moth.  No,  my  complete  master :  but  to  jig  off  a  tune  at 
the  tongue's  end,  canary  to  it  with  your  feet,  humour  it  with 
turning  up  your  eye-lids ;  sigh  a  note,  and  sing  a  note ;  some- 

*  This  "Concolinel"  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  Shakespeare.  It 
may  be  an  old  refrain  or  burden,  but  we  can  only  guess  at  its  mean- 
ing. "  Bonnibel "  (from  the  French  "  Bonne  et  Belle  "  )  was  often 
used  as  a  refrain;  which  may  have  some  connection  with  the 
subject.  % 


140  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

time  through  the  throat,  as  if  you  swallowed  love  with  singing 
love ;  sometime  through  the  nose,  as  if  you  snuffed  up  love  by 
smelling  love." 

The  brawl  was  the  English  spelling  of  the  French 
branle.  It  was  a  dance  in  which  the  figures  exe- 
cuted by  the  leading  couple  were  imitated  by  a  line 
of  their  followers ;  many  of  the  mediaeval  dances 
were  of  this  imitative  character,  and  it  is  possible 
that  the  branle  had  a  remote  origin. 

The  canary  was  a  species  of  gigue,  quicker  than 
the  loure,  yet  slower  than  the  true  jig.  Its  rhythm 
was  generally  3-8  or  6-8. 

One  of  the  Shakespearian  allusions  to  the  com- 
bination of  singing  and  dancing  brings  back  a  melody 
which  we  have  already  met  with,  —  the  "  Light  o' 
love."  —  ("Much  Ado  About  Nothing,"  Act  iii. 
Sc.  4). 

"Beatrice.     Good  morrow,  sweet  Hero. 
Hero.     Why,  how  now  !  do  you  speak  in  the  sick  tune  ? 
Beatrice.     I  am  out  of  all  other  tune,  methinks. 
Margaret.     Clap  us  into  — «  Light  o'  love  ; '  that  goes  with- 
out a  burden;  do  you  sing  it,  and  I'll  dance  it. 

Beatrice.     Yea,  '  Light  o'  love,'  with  your  heels  !  " 

Regarding  the  names  of  the  dances  quoted  above 
we  may  state  that  the  galliard  came  from  the  word 
"gayj"  tne  pavane  from  "pavone,"  a  peacock ;  the 
branle  from  the  French  branle r,  to  sway  from  side 
to  side;  courante  from  conrir,  to  run;    canary  from 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  141 

the  name  of  the  islands,  and  gigue  from  Geige,  the 
German  name  for  the  fiddle. 

There  is  another,  and  an  essentially  English  dance, 
that  is  spoken  of  by  Shakespeare  in  a  very  graphic 
manner.  The  passage  occurs  in  "Winter's  Tale" 
(Act  iv.  Sc.  2),  where  the  clown  complains  of  the 
many  commissions  that  he  must  carry  out  for  his 
sister  for  the  sheep-shearing  festival. 

"  Clown.  I  cannot  do't  without  counters.  —  Let  me  see ; 
what  am  I  to  buy  for  our  sheep-shearing  feast?  Three 
pound  of  sugar;  five  pound  of  currants;  rice,  —  What  will 
this  sister  of  mine  do  with  rice  ?  But  my  father  hath  made 
her  mistress  of  the  feast  and  she  lays  it  on.  She  hath  made 
me  four-and-twenty  nosegays  for  the  shearers :  three-man  song- 
men  all,  and  very  good  ones ;  but  they  are  most  of  them  means 
and  bases:  but  one  Puritan  amongst  them,  and  he  sings 
psalms  to  hornpipes." 

We  have  here  the  right  dance  in  the  wrong  coun- 
try ;  one  would  as  soon  find  Shakespeare's  celebrated 
"  seacoast  in  Bohemia "  as  discover  any  hornpipes 
there.  The  hornpipe  is  an  ancient  English  dance. 
In  old  England,  centuries  ago,  the  shepherds  used  to 
play  upon  a  long  wooden  pipe,  which  instrument  gave 
rise  to  the  much  more  developed  English  horn  of  the 
modern  orchestra.  The  name  of  this  ancient  instru- 
ment, the  horn-pipe,  was  transferred  to  the  favourite 
dance  of  the  shepherds,  which  was  played  upon  it. 
The  hornpipe  had  spme  of  the  characteristics  of  the 


142  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

jig  and  of  the  brawl.  It  ended  with  a  stamping 
effect  not  unlike  the  conclusion  of  each  period  in 
a  properly  constructed  jig. 

Nowadays  the  hornpipe  is  considered  especially  a 
sailor's  dance,  but  this  was  not  the  case  in  Shake- 
speare's time,  nor  in  the  century  after,  as  one  can 
readily  perceive  by  examining  the  tune  of  "  The  Brit- 
ish Grenadiers  "  (which  is  a  hornpipe  melody)  or  the 
brilliant  hornpipe  which  ends  Handel's  "  Concerto 
Grosso,  No.  7,"  a  work  which  is  still  occasionally 
heard  in  our  chamber  concerts.  Before  leaving  the 
above  quotation  about  the  hornpipe  we  may  notice 
the  fact  that  the  chorus  was  troubled  then,  as  now, 
by  a  lack  of  high  voices ;  most  of  the  singers  are 
"means  and  bases."  Regarding  the  "three-men 
song-men "  we  shall  have  more  to  say  hereafter. 

There  was  another  composition,  alluded  to  by 
Shakespeare,  which  was  sometimes  danced  and  some- 
times sung  without  dancing,  and  even  occasionally 
played  as  an  instrumental  composition.  This  was  the 
"dump,"  which  was  slow  and  melancholy,  and  gave 
rise  to  the  modern  saying,  "  In  the  dumps,"  i.  e.  in 
melancholy  mood. 

It  is  probably  the  dump  that  Thomas  Ford  refers 
to,  when  he  speaks  (in  1607)  of  "pavens,  galiards, 
almaines,  toies,  jiggs,  thumpes,  and  such  like." 
Steevens,  the  eminent  Shakespearian  commentator, 
considers   the    dump    to    have    been  an  old    Italian 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


143 


dance.  Naylor,  "  Shakespeare  and  Music,"  page  23, 
defines  it  thus : 

"The  dumpe  (from  Swedish  dialect,  dumpa,  to 
dance  awkwardly)  was  a  slow,  mournful  dance."' 

We  may,  however,  suggest  another  etymology  in 
this  case,  since  the  melody  is  supposed  to  come  from 
southern  Europe,  and  was  sometimes  a  sorrowful 
tune  without  dancing ;  the  Bohemian  "  dumka  "  ful- 
fils all  the  demands  of  the  dump,  in  that  it  is  an 
elegy,  is  sometimes  combined  with  dramatic  action 
that  may  be  called  dancing,  and  is  the  saddest  music 
imaginable.  Some  of  the  dumkas  written  by  Dvorak, 
and  used  even  in  his  symphonies,  are  sufficient  proof 
that  the  dumka  does  not  differ  at  all  from  the  dump. 


FIRST   PERIOD   OF   "LADY  CAREY'S   DUMP." 

(About  1600.) 


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144     "  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Naturally  Shakespeare  alludes  freely  enough  to 
such  a  characteristic  melody.  We  have  already 
quoted  Proteus's  advice  to  Thurio  ("Two  Gentle- 
men of  Verona,"  Act  iii.  Sc.  2)  to  "tune  a  deploring 
dump,"  and  Peter's  paradox  ("Romeo  and  Juliet," 
Act  iv.  Sc.  5),  when  he  begs  the  musicians,  "Oh, 
play  some  merry  dump  to  comfort  me,"  neither  of 
which  examples  suggests  dancing.  We  give  an  ex- 
ample of  the  character  of  the  dump  as  well  as  of  the 
pavane  in  Shakespeare's  time. 

All  of  the  dances  described  above  were  freely 
danced  in  England  by  all  conditions  of  men  and 
women.  In  England  and  in  the  northern  countries 
of  continental  Europe,  even  the  aristocracy  often 
indulged  in  the  lively  as  well  as  in  the  more 
stately  dances,  and  indeed  generally  seemed  to 
prefer  the  former.  In  France,  Italy,  and  Spain 
this  was  not  the  case,  and  the  higher  classes  ex- 
ecuted only  the  more  elegant  or  more  dignified 
dances. 

Brandt,  in  his  "  Ship  of  Fools,"  speaks  of  the  uni- 
versal indulgence  in  dancing,  as  follows  : 

"To  itxomes  children,  maydes,  and  wives, 
And  flatering  yonge  men  to  see  to  have  their  pray, 
The  hande  in  hande  great  falshode  oft  contrives, 
The  old  quean  also  this  madness  will  assay ; 
And  the  olde  dotarde,  though  he  scantly  may, 
For  age  and  lamenes  styrre  eyther  foote  or  hande, 
Yet  playeth  he  the  foole  with  other  in  the  bande." 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


145 


The  last  four  lines  at  once  bring  up  the  picture  of 
Sir  Andrew  Aguecheek  ;  it  is  evident  that  Shake- 
speare's portrait  is  not  an  overdrawn  one. 

A  mode  of  entertainment,  which  combined  dancing 
with  pantomimic  action  and  sometimes  even  with 
words  which  were  spoken  or  sung,  was  the  masque. 
Shylock's  diatribe  against  masques  ("Merchant  of 
Venice,"  Act  ii.  Sc  5.)  will  be  remembered,  and  has 
already  been  quoted  in  connection  with  the  "  wry- 
necked  fife,"  but  Shakespeare  not  only  has  many 
other  allusions  to  this  mode  of  entertainment,  but 
actually  introduced  it  complete  upon  his  stage,  in 
connection  with  his  plays,  as,  for  example,  in  "The 
Tempest,"  in  "  Timon  of  Athens,"  etc.  (see  Chapter 
XIIL). 


Saraband. 
Andante. 


"THE   KYNG'S   MASKE." 

Undoubtedly  the  Masque  Music  of  Henry  VIII. 


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The  description  by  Bacon,  in  Chapter  I.  of  this 
volume,  may  give  the  best  idea  of  what  these  pag- 
eants were  like.     The  masque  preceded  the  opera, 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC,  I47 

and  probably  came  to  England  from  Italy,  although 
the  latter  country  changed  to  opera  immediately 
upon  the  invention  of  that  kind  of  entertainment 
(1 594-1600),  while  the  chief  masques  of  England 
were  performed  at  a  later  epoch,  the  opera  not  being 
known  in  England  during  Shakespeare's  lifetime. 

According  to  Hall's  "  Chronicle  "  the  first  masque 
performed  in  England  was  at  Greenwich,  in  15 12, 
"after  the  maner  of  Italie,"  and  Holinshed  says 
that  there  was  not  only  a  masque  but  a  good  comedy 
of  Plautus  performed  in  1520.  In  1530  a  masque 
was  performed  in  Whitehall.  Burney,  in  his  "  History 
of  Music  "  (Vol.  III.  p.  346),  says : 

"  It  is  recorded  in  the  folio  edition  of  Ben  Jonson's  works, 
printed  in  1640,  that  in  161 7  his  whole  masque  which  was 
performed  at  the  house  of  Lord  Hay,  for  the  entertainment  of 
the  French  ambassador,  was  set  to  music  after  the  Italian 
manner  by  Nic  Laniere,  who  also  painted  the  scenes." 

Ferrabosco,  Coperario,  and  other  Italian  masters 
set  music  to  the  early  masques,  and  the  English 
composers  at  once  followed  so  good  an  example, 
such  composers  as  Byrd,  Robert  Johnson,  William 
and  Henry  Lawes,  and  a  host  of  others  setting  Ben 
Jonson,  Milton,  Shakespeare,  etc.,  to  music  in  this 
form,  a  primitive  opera  without  the  recitative  decla- 
mation which  afterward  obtained.  No  less  a  person 
than  Inigo  Jones  designed  the  costumes  and  invented 
the  machinery  forborne  of  the  pageants.    A  masque 


148  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

given  by  the  four  Inns  of  Court,  in  London,  in  1633, 
cost  more  than  a  thousand  pounds.  After  the 
Restoration  the  masque  seems  to  have  degenerated 
into  a  mere  fancy  dress  ball  or  masquerade. 

Shakespeare's  employment  of  the  masque  was 
quite  in  line  with  the  taste  of  his  time,  which  desired 
every  species  of  pageant  upon  the  stage.  If  the 
scenery  was  sadly  deficient  in  the  Shakespeare 
theatre,  this  was  made  up  by  the  splendour  of  some 
of  the  costumes  and  the  ingenuity  of  the  machinery. 
Of  this,  however,  we  shall  speak  more  at  length  in  a 
later  chapter. 

Not  only  was  dancing  introduced  in  the  Shake- 
spearian plays,  but  even  between  the  acts,  and  after 
the  last  act,  some  species  of  Terpsichorean  revelry 
was  added  to  the  dramatic  entertainment,1  very  much 
as  the  ballet  is  interpolated  in  operatic  performances 
in  Paris  at  present. 

Only  once  does  Shakespeare  mention  that  round 
dance  which  the  rustics  loved,  —  the  hay.  It  is  in 
"  Love's  Labour's  Lost "  (Act  v.  Sc.  1)  that  Dull 
says  : 

"  I'll  make  one  in  a  dance  or  so ;  or  I  will  play  upon  a 
tabor  to  the  worthies,  and  let  them  dance  the  hay." 

The  hay,  as  well  as  the  morris-dance,  was  associ- 
ated with  May-day  festivities ;  in  fact,  all  kinds  of 

1  See  Chapter  XIII. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  I49 

musical  and  Terpsichorean  sport  were  indulged  in  on 
that  day,  as  may  be  judged  from  the  following  quo- 
tation from  Spenser's  "  Shepherds'  Calendar"  (Ec- 
logue v.) : 

"  Siker  this  morrow,  no  longer  ago, 
I  saw  a  shole  of  shepherds  outgo 
With  singing,  and  shouting,  and  jolly  cheer ; 
Before  them  yode  a  lusty  Tabrere, 
That  to  the  many  a  horn-pipe  play'd, 
Whereto  they  dancen  each  one  with  his  maid. 
To  see  these  folks  make  such  jouissance, 
Made  my  heart  after  the  pipe  to  dance. 
Then  to  the  greenwood  they  speeden  them  all, 
To  fetchen  home  May  with  their  musical : 
And  home  they  bring  him  in  a  royal  throne 
Crowned  as  king ;  and  his  queen  attone 
Was  Lady  Flora,  on  whom  did  attend 
A  fair  flock  of  fairies,  and  a  fresh  bend 
Of  lovely  nymphs —  O  that  I  were  there, 
To  helpen  the  ladies  their  May  bush  to  bear ! " 

We  can  sum  up  the  style  of  the  English  dancing 
and  its  musical  adjuncts  with  a  quotation  from  an  old 
pamphlet  (1609),  which  says  : 

"  The  Courts  of  Kings  for  stately  measures,  the  City  for 
light  heels  and  nimble  footing ;  Western  men  for  gambols  ; 
Middlesex  men  for  tricks  above  ground ;  Essex  men  for  the 
Hey ;  Lancashire  for  Hornpipes ;  Worcestershire  for  Bagpipes ; 
but  Herefordshire  for  a  Morris  dance,  puts  down  not  only  all 
Kent,  but  very  near  three  quarters  of  Christendom  if  one  had 
line  enough  to  measure  it."  ("  Old  Meg  of  Herefordshire  for 
a  Maid  Marian.")         \ 


150  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

But  it  must  be  added  that  these  "  stately  measures  M 
of  the  aristocracy,  whether  in  England,  Poland,  Italy, 
France,  or  any  important  European  court,  were 
chiefly  processional,  and  consisted  in  the  dancers 
imitating  the  steps  and  gestures  of  the  first  couple, 
which  explains  Beatrice  saying  to  Benedick  ("  Much 
Ado  About  Nothing,"  Act  ii.  Sc.  2) :  "  We  must 
follow  the  leaders !  " 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Shakespeare's  /Esthetic  Appreciation  of  Music  —  Index  to  Char* 
acters  by  Their  Appreciation  of  Music  —  Famous  Persons  Who 
Have  Disliked  Music — Shakespeare's  Jests  at  Music  Balanced 
by  His  Tributes  to  the  Art — Evening  Music  —  The  Music  of 
the  Sea  —  The  Music  of  the  Spheres. 

In  this  chapter  we  propose  to  leave  for  awhile  the 
technical  references  to  music  with  which  Shakespeare 
teems,  and  study  the  tributes  which  the  poet  has 
given  to  the  art  in  general,  the  praises  which  he 
brings  to  it,  and  the  enthusiasm  which  it  evidently 
excites  in  him.  Here  the  poet  appeals  not  only  to 
the  musician,  but  to  every  person  whose  culture  or 
refined  instinct  enables  him  to  vibrate  responsive 
to  artistic  beauty. 

Perhaps  no  greater  tribute  to  the  power  of  music 
can  be  found  than  in  Shakespeare's  presentation  of 
the  psychical  side  of  a  character  by  its  apprecia- 
tion, half -appreciation,  or  non-appreciation  of  the  art. 
The  superficial  critic  will  at  once  seize  upon  the  well- 
known  lines  at  the  end  of  the  following  scene 
("Merchant  of  Venice,"  Act  v.  Sc.  i),  as  the  sum 
of  it  all;  * 


152  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

"  Lorenzo.     Why  should  we  go  in  ? 
My  friend  Stephano,  signify,  I  pray  you, 
Within  the  house,  your  mistress  is  at  hand ; 
And  bring  you  music  forth  into  the  air.  —       [Exit  Stiphano. 
How  sweet  the  moonlight  sleeps  upon  this  bank ! 
Here  will  we  sit,  and  let  the  sounds  of  music 
Creep  in  our  ears ;  soft  stillness,  and  the  night, 
Become  the  touches  of  sweet  harmony. 
Sit,  Jessica :  Look,  how  the  floor  of  heaven 
Is  thick  inlaid  with  patines  of  bright  gold ; 
There's  not  the  smallest  orb,  which  thou  behold'st, 
But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings, 
Still  quiring  to  the  young-eyed  cherubims : 
Such  harmony  is  in  immortal  souls ; 
But,  whilst  this  muddy  vesture  of  decay 
Doth  grossly  close  it  in,  we  cannot  hear  it.  -»- 

Enter  Musicians. 

Come,  ho,  and  wake  Diana  with  a  hymn ; 
With  sweetest  touches  pierce  your  mistress'  ear, 
And  draw  her  home  with  music. 

Jessica.     I  am  never  merry,  when  I  hear  sweet  music. 

[Music. 

Lorenzo.     The  reason  is,  your  spirits  are  attentive : 
For  do  but  note  a  wild  and  wanton  herd, 
Or  race  of  youthful  and  unhandled  colts, 
Fetching  mad  bounds,  bellowing,  and  neighing  loud, 
Which  is  the  hot  condition  of  their  blood ; 
If  they  but  hear  perchance  a  trumpet  sound, 
Or  any  air  of  music  touch  their  ears, 
You  shall  perceive  them  make  a  mutual  stand, 
Their  savage  eyes  turn'd  to  a  modest  gaze, 
By  the  sweet  power  of  music :  Therefore,  the  poet 
Did  feign,  that  Orpheus  drew  trees,  stones,  and  floods; 
Since  nought  so  stockish,  hard,  and  full  of  rage, 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  153 

But  music  for  the  time  doth  change  his  nature : 

The  man  that  hath  no  music  in  himself, 

Nor  is  not  moved  with  concord  of  sweet  sounds, 

Is  fit  for  treasons,  stratagems,  and  spoils ; 

The  motions  of  his  spirit  are  dull  as  night, 

And  his  affections  dark  as  Erebus : 

Let  no  such  man  be  trusted.  —  Mark  the  music." 

We  are  not  disposed  to  regard  the  last  six  lines 
of  this  sentence  as  absolute  statement  of  fact ;  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  sentiment  is  given 
to  one  of  Shakespeare's  lovers,  and  by  no  means  the 
greatest  of  his  kind.  It  is  Lorenzo's  ecstatic  praise 
of  music  that  we  hear,  and  the  poet  has,  perhaps  pur- 
posely, made  it  somewhat  extreme.  The  extravagant 
use  made  by  commentators  of  this  passage  aroused 
the  ire  of  one  of  the  Shakespearian  editors.  Steevens, 
in  commenting  on  the  scene,  bursts  forth  with  this 
violent  diatribe : 

"The  present  passage,  which  is  neither  pregnant  with 
physical  and  moral  truth,  nor  poetically  beautiful  in  an  emi- 
nent degree,  has  constantly  enjoyed  the  good  fortune  to  be 
repeated  by  those  whose  inhospitable  memories  would  have 
refused  to  admit  or  retain  any  other  sentiment  or  description 
of  the  same  author,  however  exalted  or  just.  The  truth  is 
that  it  furnishes  the  vacant  fiddler  with  something  to  say  in 
defence  of  his  profession,  and  supplies  the  coxcomb  in  music 
with  an  invective  against  such  as  do  not  pretend  to  discover 
all  the  various  powers  of  language  in  inarticulate  sounds." 

It  is  in  this  connection  that  Steevens  calls  the 
sentence   a    "capricious   sentiment,"   and   intimates 


< 


154  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

that  Shakespeare  only  employed  it  to  curry  fa- 
vour with  his  audience,  with  whom  music  was  a 
fashion. 

The  attack  is  so  extreme,  especially  as  coming 
from  the  editor  of  the  greatest  music-lover  among 
poets,  that  Furness  (Variorum  Edition,  Vol.  VII. 
p.  252)  ventures  to  doubt  its  authenticity.  Furness 
says : 

"  It  is  difficult  to  decide,  as  we  have  had  more  than  once  to 
note,  whether  Steevens  is  in  jest  or  earnest.  I  am  by  no  means 
sure  but  that  this  attack  on  music  was  riot  a  trap,  whereby  to 
lure  some  honest  Goodman  Dull  into  a  defence  of  it." 

One  feels  loath  to  differ  from  the  most  eminent 
of  all  Shakespearians,  but  such  jesting  would  utterly 
unfit  Steevens  for  any  task  like  that  of  commenta- 
tion, where  not  to  be  clear  and  reliable  would  be 
the  deadliest  of  sins.1  If,  however,  he  intended 
a  trap,  he  has  caught  plenty  of  victims,  for  a  tor- 
rent of  indignation  was  the  result,  —  a  torrent 
which  has  not  spent  its  force  even  in  the  present 
day. 

But  it  may  be  borne  in  mind  that  Shakespeare 
pictures  Othello  (Act  iii.  Sc.  1)  as  being  averse  to 
music,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  following : 

1  The  reader  will  find  another  anti-musical  quotation  from  Stee- 
vens in  Chapter  X.,  which  tends  still  further  to  discredit  Furness's 
lenient  suggestion. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  155 

"  Enter  Cassio  and  some  Musicians. 

Cassio.     Masters,  play  here,  I  will  content  your  pains. 
Something  that's  brief ;  and  bid  —  good  morrow,  general. 

[Music. 
Enter  Clown. 

Clown.     Why,  masters,   have    your  instruments  been   at 
Naples,  that  they  speak  i'  the  nose  thus  ? 
Musicians.     How,  sir,  how? 

Clown.  But,  masters,  here's  money  for  you  :  and  the  gen- 
eral so  likes  your  music,  that  he  desires  you,  of  all  your  loves, 
to  make  no  more  noise  with  it. 

First  Musician.     Well,  sir,  we  will  not. 

Clown.  If  you  have  any  music  that  may  not  be  heard,  to't 
again :  but,  as  they  say,  to  hear  music,  the  general  does  not 
greatly  care. 

First  Musician.     We  have  none  such,  sir. 

Clown.  Then  put  up  your  pipes  in  your  bag,  for  I'll 
away  :  Go  ;  vanish  into  air ;  away.  [Exeunt  Musicians." 

And,  like  the  impetuous  and  tropical  Othello,  the  cou- 
rageous and  impatient  Harry  Hotspur  cares  nothing 
for  the  art ;  indeed,  the  second  example  is  more  pro- 
nounced than  the  first,  for  Othello  "  did  not  greatly 
care  "  for  music,  while  Percy  evidently  detests  it,  judg- 
ing by  the  following  citation  from  the  first  scene 
of  the  third  act  of  "  Henry  IV."   (First  Part). 

"  Glendower.     I  can  speak  English,  lord,  as  well  as  you ; 
For  I  was  train'd  up  in  the  English  court : 
Where,  being  but  young,  I  fram'd  to  the  harp 
Many  an  English  ditty,  lovely  well, 
And  gave  the  tongue  &  helpful  ornament: 


-""A 


156  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

A  virtue  that  was  never  seen  in  you. 

Hotspur.     Marry,  and  I'm  glad  of  it  with  all  my  heart; 
I  had  rather  be  a  kitten,  and  cry  —  mew, 
Than  one  of  these  same  metre  ballad-mongers : 
I  had  rather  hear  a  brazen  can'stick  turn'd, 
Or  a  dry  wheel  grate  on  an  axle-tree  ; 
And  that  would  set  my  teeth  nothing  on  edge. 
Nothing  so  much  as  mincing  poetry : 
'Tis  like  the  forced  gait  of  a  shuffling  nag." 

Yet  the  same  citation  shows,  by  the  musical  gifts 
of  Glendower,  that  Shakespeare  deemed  musical  ap- 
preciation or  ability  not  incompatible  with  bravery 
and  military  prowess.1 

Not  all  of  those  who  care  nothing  for  music  are 
"fit  for  treason,  stratagem,  and  spoils,"2  for  there 
is  a  very  respectable  list  of  notabilities  who  were 
tone-deaf.  Among  these  we  may  mention  Tenny* 
son,  Charles  Lamb,  Addison,  Doctor  Johnson  (who 
thought  it  necessary  to  apologise  for  Shakespeare's 
love  of  music),  Dean  Swift,  and  a  host  of  others. 
But  Shakespeare  seems  to  intimate,  at  least,  that 
a  lack  of  musical  appreciation  is  to  be  viewed  with 
suspicion,  for   in    "  Julius    Caesar "    (Act   i.    Sc.    2) 

1  Note  also  Lucentio's  definition  of  the  use  of  music  ("  Taming 
of  the  Shrew,"  Act  iii.  Sc.  i),  quoted  in  Chapter  III.,  beginning 
■  Preposterous  ass,"  for  a  lesser  estimate  of  music. 

2  Closely  akin  to  the  Shakespearian  line,  is  that  quoted  by  Mor- 
ley  (1598);  he  says:  "I  ever  held  this  sentence  of  the  poet  as  a 
canon  of  my  creed,  —  That  whom  God  loveth  not,  they  love  not 
Musick." 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC,  I$f 

Caesar  speaks  of  a  dislike  of  plays  and  of  music  as 
being  one  of  his  causes  of  distrust  of  Cassius. 

"  Ccssar.     Let  me  have  men  about  me  that  are  fat ; 
Sleek-headed  men,  and  such  as  sleep  o'  nights : 
'Yond  Cassius  has  a  lean  and  hungry  look ; 
He  thinks  too  much :  such  men  are  dangerous. 

Antonius.     Fear  him  not,  Caesar,  he's  not  dangerous; 
He  is  a  noble  Roman,  and  well  given. 

CcBsar.     Would  he  were  fatter :  —  But  I  fear  him  not : 
Yet  if  my  name  were  liable  to  fear, 
I  do  not  know  the  man  I  should  avoid 
So  soon  as  that  spare  Cassiusu   He  reads  much ; 
He  is  a  great  observer,  and  he  looks 
Quite  through  the  deeds  of  men :  he  loves  no  plays, 
As  thou  dost,  Antony :  he  hears  no  music."  — — . 

It  is  a  point  worth  noting  that,  whenever  Shake- 
speare points  his  jests  at  music,  he  is  sure  to  bring 
forth  some  of  his  most  earnest  tributes  to  the  art  in 
the  same  play.  "Twelfth  Night,"  as  may  be  seen 
in  other  chapters,  is  full  of  the  ribald  side  of  music, 
yet  no  play  is  richer  in  earnest  musical  allusions.  The 
very  first  lines  of  this  comedy  are  devoted  to  a 
eulogy  of  music. 

"ACT.  I. 

Scene  I.     An  Apartment  in  the  Duke's  Palace. 

Enter  Duke,  Curio,  Lords  ;  Musicians  attending, 

Duke.     If  music  be  the  food  of  love,  play  on, 
Give  me  excess  of  it ;  that,  surfeiting, 
The  appetite  may  ^icken,  and  so  die.  — 


158  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

That  strain  again  — it  had  a  dying  fall : 
O,  it  came  o'er  my  ear  like  the  sweet  sound 
That  breathes  upon  a  bank  of  violets, 
Stealing,  and  giving  odour.  —  Enough;  no  more  : 
'Tis  not  so  sweet  now,  as  it  was  before." 

The  last  word  of  the  fifth  line  of  the  above  has  set 
the  commentators  by  the  ears,  for  many  prefer  to 
read  it  as  "south"  (z.  e.  the  south  wind),  which  is 
the  more  poetical  metaphor,  but  seems  to  find  no 
good  warrant  in  the  original  edition.  We  owe  the 
altered  reading  —  "  the  sweet  south  "  —  to  Pope. 
Rowe  would  have  us  read  "  the  sweet  wind ; " 
Steevens  gives  his  adhesion  to  "south,"  and  thinks 
that  the  passage  might  have  been  inspired  by  a 
similar  tribute  to  the  southwest  wind  in  Sydney's 
"Arcadia;"  Knight  and  White  agree  in  choosing 
"sound,"  and  it  is  worth  noticing  that  Shakespeare 
nowhere  gives  any  laudation  of  the  south  wind,  but 
connects  it  with  fog,  rain,  and  bad  weather.  The 
subject  is  not  within  our  province,  yet  we  may  cite 
the  above  opinions  as  an  instance  of  one  of  the  many 
battles  that  have  been  fought  over  Shakespearian 
texts. 

Fortunately,  the  rest  of  the  citation  is  easy  of  def- 
inition, for  "  dying  fall "  means  only  a  cadence  played 
diminuendo.  Bacon,  in  his  "  Sylva  Sylvarum,"  speaks 
of  a  "fall  from  a  discord  to  a  concord." 

To  return  to  our  musical  tributes ;  we  need  not  as 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC,  1 59 

yet  leave  "  Twelfth  Night."    In  Act  ii.  Sc.  4,  our  ducal 
music-lover  again  bursts  forth  in  praise  of  the  art. 

"  Duke.      Give    me    some    music.  —  Now,   good    morrow, 
friends.  — 
Now,  good  Cesario,  but  that  piece  of  song, 
That  old  and  antique  song  we  heard  last  night ; 
Methought  it  did  relieve  my  passion  much  ; 
More  than  light  airs  and  recollected  terms, 
Of  these  most  brisk  and  giddy-pace'd  times :  — 
Come,  but  one  verse. 

Curio.  He  is  not  here,  so  please  your  lordship,  that  should 
sing  it. 

Duke.     Who  was  it  ? 

Curio.  Feste,  the  jester,  my  lord ;  a  fool,  that  the  lady 
Olivia's  father  took  much  delight  in  ;  he  is  about  the  house. 

Duke.     Seek  him  out,  and  play  the  tune  the  while. 

[Exit  Curio.  —  Music. 
Come  hither,  boy :  If  ever  thou  shalt  love, 
In  the  sweet  pangs  of  it,  remember  me : 
For,  such  as  I  am,  all  true  lovers  are ; 
Unstaid  and  skittish  in  all  motions  else, 
Save  in  the  constant  image  of  the  creature 
That  is  beloved.  —  How  dost  thou  like  this  tune? 

Viola.     It  gives  a  very  echo  to  the  seat 
Where  love  is  throned." 

When  Feste,  the  most  important  and  musical  of 
Shakespeare's  clowns,  enters,  there  is  further  musi- 
cal comment  : 

"  Re-enter  Curio  and  Clown. 

Duke.     O  fellow,  come,  the  song  we  had  last  night !  — 
Mark  it,  Cesario ;  it  isVld  and  plain. 


l6o  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

The  spinsters  and  the  knitters  in  the  sun, 

And  the  free  maids,  that  weave  their  thread  with  bones, 

Do  use  to  chant  it ;  it  is  silly  sooth, 

And  dallies  with  the  innocence  of  love, 

Like  the  old  age. 

Clown.     Are  you  ready,  sir? 

Duke.     Ay;  pr'ythee,  sing.  [Music. 

SONG.1 

Clown.      '  Come  away,  come  away,  death, 
And  in  sad  cypress  let  me  be  laid ; 

Fly  away,  fly  away,  breath  ; 
I  am  slain  by  a  fair,  cruel  maid. 
My  shroud  of  white,  stuck  all  with  yew, 

O  prepare  it ; 

My  part  of  death  no  one  so  true 

Did  share  it. 

Not  a  flower,  not  a  flower  sweet, 
On  my  black  coffin  let  there  be  strewn : 

Not  a  friend,  not  a  friend  greet 
My  poor  corpse,  where  my  bones  shall  be  thrown : 
A  thousand  thousand  sighs  to  save, 

Lay  me,  O,  where 
Sad  true  lover  ne'er  find  my  grave, 
To  weep  there.' 

Duke.  There's  for  thy  pains. 

Clown.     No  pains,  sir ;  I  take  pleasure  in  singing,  sir. 

Duke.  I'll  pay  thy  pleasure  then. 

Clown.     Truly,  sir,  and  pleasure  will  be  paid,  one  time  or 
another." 

1  The   original   setting  of  this  important  song  is  unfortunately 
lost. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  l6l 

Again,  however,  we  find  a  stumbling-block.  "  Rec- 
ollected terms  "  makes  a  very  dubious  meaning.  If, 
as  Knight  suggests,  the  word  "  tunes "  be  substi- 
tuted, the  passage  is  easy  of  comprehension.  White 
believes  that  the  phrase  means  carefully  studied  ex- 
pressions, which  is  rather  far-fetched.  It  is  possible 
(although  we  broach  the  new  reading  with  diffidence) 
that  the  word  is  "re-collected,"  which  would  imply 
second-hand,  used  over  terms. 

The  cry  for  "  the  old  age,"  i.  e.  "  the  good  old 
times,"  is  quaint  enough,  coming  so  long  ago.  Yet 
one  can  find  the  same  thought  expressed  much  be- 
fore Shakespeare's  time,  for  Aristophanes,  a  half- 
dozen  centuries  before  our  era,  also  cried  out  for 
"  the  good  old  times  ;  "  in  fact,  Adam  and  Eve  seem 
to  be  the  only  parties  who  did  not  compare  the 
past  with  the  present,  to  the  disadvantage  of  the 
latter. 

Cleopatra  (Act  ii.  Sc.  5)  speaks  of  music  as  the  — 

"  moody  food 
Of  us  that  trade  in  love,"  — 

and,  by  the  way,  directly  after,  invites  Charmian  to  a 
game  of  billiards,  a  little  more  than  a  thousand  years 
before  anything  like  billiards  was  invented !  But 
Cleopatra  defies  chronology,  and  desires  her  stays 
cut  at  a  time  when  they  did  not  exist  ! 

It  may  be  regaMed  as  one  of  the  aesthetic  points 


1 62  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

of  Shakespeare,  that  he  describes  the  musician's  mel- 
ancholy. The  passage  is  found  in  "As  You  Like 
It  "  (Act  iv.  Sc.  i),  and  is  spoken  by  the  cynical 
Jaques : 

"  I  have  neither  the  scholar's  melancholy,  which  is  emula- 
tion ;  nor  the  musician's,  which  is  fantastical ;  nor  the  court- 
ier's, which  is  proud;  nor  the  soldier's,  which  is  ambitious; 
nor  the  lawyer's,  which  is  politic;  nor  the  lady's,  which  is 
nice  ;  nor  the  lover's,  which  is  all  these." 

Naturally  so  poetic  a  nature  as  that  of  Shakespeare 
would  speak  of  evening  as  music's  most  fitting  frame. 
In  "The  Merchant  of  Venice  "  (Act  v.  Sc.  i),  Portia 
speaks  to  Nerissa  of  this  fitness : 

"  Music  !  hark  ! 

Nerissa.     It  is  your  music,  madam,  of  the  house. 

Portia.     Nothing  is  good,  I  see,  without  respect ; 
Methinks,  it  sounds  much  sweeter  than  by  day. 

Nerissa.     Silence  bestows  that  virtue  on  it,  madam. 

Portia.     The  crow  doth  sing  as  sweetly  as  the  lark, 
When  neither  is  attended ;  and,  I  think, 
The  nightingale,  if  she  should  sing  by  day, 
When  every  goose  is  cackling,  would  be  thought 
No  better  a  musician  than  the  wren. 
How  many  things  by  season  season'd  are 
To  their  right  praise,  and  true  perfection !  — 
Peace,  hoa  !  the  moon  sleeps  with  Endymion, 
And  would  not  be  awak'd  !  [Music  ceases" 

And  in  "Much  Ado  About  Nothing"  (Act  ii.  Sc. 
3),  Claudio  voices  very  nearly  the  same  sentiment. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  1 63 

"Don  Pedro.     Come,  shall  we  hear  this  music? 
Claudio.     Yea,  my  good  lord  :  —  How  still  the  evening  is, 
As  hush'd  on  purpose  to  grace  harmony  !  " 

The  music  of  the  sea  does  not  escape  the  genius  of 
our  great  poet.  He  does  not,  to  be  sure,  go  as  far  as 
Walt  Whitman,  with  his  stirring  lines : 

"  To-day  a  rude  and  brief  recitative 

Of  ships  sailing  the  seas, 

Each  with  its  special  flag  or  ship  signal, 

Of  unnamed  heroes  in  the  ships, 

Of  waves  spreading  and  spreading,  far  as  the  eye  can  reach, 

Of  dashing  spray,  and  the  winds  piping  and  blowing ; 

And  out  of  these  a  song  for  the  sailors  of  all  nations ; 

Fitful,  like  a  surge." 

Nevertheless,  "  The  Tempest  "  has  many  allusions 
to  marine  music,  of  better  character  and  more  refined 
style  than  the  broad  bacchanalian  touches  which  are 
found  in  that  great  work  ;  Oberon,  too,  in  "  Midsum- 
mer Night's  Dream"  (Act  ii.  Sc.  1),  speaks  of  the 
music  of  the  sea  : 

"  My  gentle  Puck,  come  hither :  Thou  remember'st 
Since  once  I  sat  upon  a  promontory, 
And  heard  a  mermaid,  on  a  dolphin's  back, 
Uttering  such  a  dulcet  and  harmonious  breath, 
That  the  rude  sea  grew  civil  at  her  song ; 
And  certain  stars  shot  madly  from  their  spheres, 
To  hear  the  sea-maid's  music." 

And  in  the  "  Comedy  of  Errors  "  (Act  iii.  Sc.  2),  we 
find  the  lines  :       \ 


1 64  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

"  O,  train  me  not,  sweet  mermaid,  with  thy  note, 
To  drown  me  in  thy  sister's  flood  of  tears ; 
Sing,  syren,  for  thyself,  and  I  will  dote : 

Spread  o'er  the  silver  waves  thy  golden  hairs." 

Naturally,  too,  the  music  of  the  spheres  is  men- 
tioned more  than  once  by  Shakespeare,  who  lived  in 
an  epoch  which  held  to  the  derivation  of  the  sym- 
metry of  music  from  natural  causes.  In  "Twelfth 
Night  "  (Act  iii.  Sc.  i),  Olivia  says  to  the  supposed 
Cesario  (Viola)  that  she  would  rather  hear  his  suit 
"  than  music  from  the  spheres ; "  in  "  Antony  and 
Cleopatra,"  the  heroine  speaks  of  the  Antony  she 
had  dreamed  of : 

"  His  voice  was  propertied 
As  all  the  tune'd  spheres,  and  that  to  friends ; 
But  when  he  meant  to  quail  and  shake  the  orb, 
He  was  as  rattling  thunder." 

In    "Pericles"    (Act   v.  Sc.    i),  the  following  allu- 
sion to  the  music  of  the  spheres  is  found : 

"  Pericles.  But  what  music  ? 

Pelicanus.     My  lord,  I  hear  none. 

Pericles.     None  ? 
The  music  of  the  spheres :  list,  my  Marina. 

Lysimachus.     It  is  not  good  to  cross  him ;  give  him  way. 

Pericles.     Rarest  sounds ! 
Do  ye  not  hear  ? 

Lysimachus.     Music?  my  lord,  I  hear— 

Pericles.     Most  heavenly  music ; 
It  nips  me  unto  list'ning,  and  thick  slumber 
Hangs  on  mine  eyelids  ;  let  me  rest.  [He  sleeps? 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  1 65 

/ 1 

In  "  As  You  Like  It  "  (Act  ii.  Sc.  5),  Duke,  senior, 
says  of  Jaques : 


If  he,  compact  of  jars,  grows  musical, 

We  shall  have  shortly  discord  in  the  spheres.' 


The  theory  of  the  music  made  by  the  motions  of 
the  planets  had  its  origin  in  ancient  Egypt,  where 
music  was  closely  connected  with  astronomy.  Py- 
thagoras, pupil  of  the  Egyptian  priests,  stole  their 
theories  and  promulgated  them  in  Greece  as  his  own, 
whence  the  music  of  the  spheres  was  generally 
known  as  a  Pythagorean  theory.  The  earliest  notes 
used  in  ancient  Greece,  about  six  centuries  before 
Christ,  were  the  planetary  signs,  the  sun  being  the 
central  and  controlling  note.  In  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury more  than  one  system  was  built  upon  this  poetic 
idea.  The  author  possesses  an  old  edition  of  the 
works  of  Zarlino  (1562),  wherein  not  only  diagrams 
of  the  proportions  of  the  spheres  are  applied  to  music, 
but  even  the  tempo  is  sought  for  in  nature,  the  Ital- 
ian writer  suggesting  that  the  speed  of  music  be 
counted  by  the  pulse  of  a  healthy  man  ! 

Among  the  various  tributes  to  the  power  of  music 
which  we  have  culled,  we  find  one,  however,  which 
intimates  that  this  power  can  be  employed  either  for 
good  or  evil.  It  will  be  noted  that  this  description 
of  the  art  occursMn  connection  with  a  song.     The 


1 66  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

scene  occurs  in  "  Measure  for  Measure,"  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fourth  act. 

"  Mariana  discovered  sitting;  a  boy  singing. 

SONG. 

« Take,  oh  take  those  lips  away, 
That  so  sweetly  were  forsworn; 
And  those  eyes,  the  break  of  day, 

Lights  that  do  mislead  the  morn : 
But  my  kisses  bring  again, 

bring  again, 
Seals  of  love,  but  seal'd  in  vain, 

seal'd  in  vain.' 

Mariana.     Break  off  thy  song,  and  haste  thee  quick  away ; 
Here  comes  a  man  of  comfort,  whose  advice 
Hath  often  still'd  my  brawling  discontent.  [Exit  boy. 

Enter  Duke. 

I  cry  you  mercy,  sir ;  and  well  could  wish, 

You  had  not  found  me  here  so  musical : 

Let  me  excuse  me,  and  believe  me  so,  — 

My  mirth  it  much  displeased,  but  pleased  my  woe. 

Duke.     'Tis  good :  though  music  oft  hath  such  a  charm, 
To  make  bad  good,  and  good  provoke  to  harm." 

The  apology  for  being  musical,  the  statement  that 
music  can  pervert  good  into  evil,  is  very  different 
from  the  Shakespeare  of  the  foregoing  musical  eulo- 
gies. Music  can  become  evil  only  by  association 
with  improper  words  or  vicious  surroundings.  The 
cancan    from    Offenbach's    "  Belle    Helene,"    might 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


I67 


bring  up  evil  associations  in  the  mind  of  any  one 
familiar  with  that  opera,  but  it  would  suggest  only 
innocent  hilarity,  gradually  growing  into  frenzy,  to  a 
person  who  knew  it  simply  as  instrumental  music. 
There  is  no  instrumental  music  that  can  be  consid- 
ered harmful  per  se.  That  the  reader  may  judge  of 
the  song  which  moved  the  duke  to  so  peculiar  an 
arraignment  of  music,  we  reprint  the  early  setting  of 
the  poem  by  Dr.  John  Wilson.1  There  is  strong 
reason  to  suppose  that  this  music  was  used  upon  the 
stage  in  "  Measure  for  Measure  "  during  the  lifetime 
of  Shakespeare. 


TAKE   THOSE   LIPS   AWAY. 

^__^^         Dr.  John  Wilson. 


fefe 


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Take,     oh  take  those  lips  .  .     a 


way,  That  so 


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sweet-lye  were  forsworne  ;  And  those  eyes,  the  breake  of  day, 


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fc^zbrszi* 


1  Possibly  this  is  t^e  *  Jack  Wilson  "  spoken   of  in  "  Twelfth 
Night."  (See  Variorum  Edition,  Furness.) 


1 68 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


^m. 


<U 


*=?, 


r — r  r3r  r — rr 

its,  that  do  mis-leade      the  morne  :  B 


But  my   kiss  -  es 


Lights 


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bring  againe,  Seales  of      love,  but   seal'd         in  vaine. 


ft^5 


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1 


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-*— 


CHAPTER   IX. 

The  Bacchanalian  Music  of  Shakespeare  —  Early  English  Drink- 
ing-songs—  Skelton's  Ale-song — Tavern  Life  and  Customs  — 
Catches  —  Ancient  Rounds  —  "  Three-men's  Songs." 

The  era  of  drinking-songs  did  not  begin  with 
Shakespeare,  nor  did  they  end  with  his  time ;  if  the 
reader  will  consult  Ritson's  famous  "  Collection  of 
English  Songs  "  he  will  find  English  drinking-songs 
of  all  epochs  and  styles.  Probably  the  oldest  Eng- 
lish drinking-song  of  any  literary  merit  is  to  be  found 
in  "A  ryght  pithy,  pleasaunt  and  merie  comedie; 
intytuled  Gammer  Gurton's  Nedle.  London  1575." 
This  wild  song  (by  no  means  the  basest  of  the 
author's  licentious  writings)  was  probably  written 
by  the  John  Skelton  referred  to  in  Chapter  V. 
Scott  has,  we  think  erroneously,  attributed  the  song 
to  John  Still ;  it  was  originally  marked  "  by  Mr.  S." 
and  there  is  little  doubt  but  this  vague  signature 
referred  to  the  man  most  capable,  at  this  epoch,  of 
producing  such  an  effusion.  The  drinking-song,  which 
was  the  prototype  of  many  that  followed,  ran  thus : 

"  Backe  and  syde  go  bare,  go  bare, 
Both  foote  and  nande  go  colde: 
169 


I/O  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

But  bellye,  God  sende  thee  good  ale  ynoughe, 

Whether  it  be  newe  or  olde. 

I  cannot  eat  but  lytle  meate, 

My  stomacke  is  not  good, 

But  sure  I  thinke  that  I  can  drinke 

With  him  that  weares  a  hood. 

"  Thoughe  I  go  bare,  take  ye  no  caref 
I  am  nothinge  acolde ; 
I  stuff  my  skyn  so  full  within, 
Of  joly  good  ale  and  olde. 

Backe  and  syde  go  bare,  go  bare,  etc. 

•*  I  love  no  rost,  but  a  nut-browne  toste, 
And  a  crab  laid  in  the  fyre ; 
A  little  breade  shall  do  me  stead, 
Much  breade  I  not  desyre. 
No  frost  nor  snow,  nor  winde  I  trowe, 
Can  hurte  mee  if  I  wolde ; 
I  am  so  wrapt,  and  throwly  lapt, 
Of  joly  good  ale  and  olde. 

Backe  and  syde  go  bare,  go  bare,  etc. 

«*  And  Tyb  my  wyfe,  that  as  her  lyfe, 
Loveth  well  good  ale  to  seeke ; 
Full  oft  drynkes  shee,  tyll  ye  may  see 
The  teares  run  downe  her  cheeke ; 
Then  doth  shee  trowle  to  mee  the  bowle, 
Even  as  a  mault-worme  shuld ; 
And  sayth,  sweete  hart,  I  tooke  my  part 
Of  this  joly  good  ale  and  olde. 

Backe  and  syde  go  bare,  go  bare,  etc. 

u  Now  let  them  drynke,  till  they  nod  and  winke, 
Even  as  good  f elowes  shoulde  doe  i 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  I/I 

They  shall  not  mysse  to  have  the  blisse, 

Good  ale  doth  bringe  men  to. 

And  all  poore  soules  that  have  scowred  boules, 

Or  have  them  lustely  trolde, 

God  save  the  lyves  of  them  and  their  wyves, 

Whether  they  be  yonge  or  olde. 

Backe  and  syde  go  bare,  go  bare,  etc." 

There  is  little  doubt  but  that  Shakespeare  enjoyed 
this  branch  of  literature.  At  Stratford-on-Avon  the 
visitor  is  shown  a  chair  whereon  the  poet  is  said  to 
have  sat  at  the  tavern  and  joined  in  the  jov;al  singing 
there.  Vicar  Ward's  account  (first  made  public  fifty 
years  after  the  event),  that  — 

"  Shakespeare,  Drayton  and  Ben  Jonson  had  a  merrle  meet- 
ing, and  it  seems  drank  too  hard,  for  Shakespeare  died  of  a 
feavour  ther  contracted,"  — 

may  or  may  not  be  true,  but  such  an  event  would' 
not  be  greatly  out  of  character  with  the  times  nor 
with  the  company  which  Shakespeare  enjoyed,  the 
rollicking  Bohemian  circle  of  Elizabethan  and  Jaco- 
bean days.  Cowley  died,  subsequently,  from  about 
the  same  cause,  and  his  boon  companions  were  of 
much  more  dignified  station. 

If  Shakespeare  did  not  copy  his  drinking-songs 
from  Skelton,  he  gave  to  his  clowns  and  vagabonds 
a  certain  device  which  one  can  find  in  the  earlier 
poet,  —  the  habit  of  throwing  in  the  refrain  or  a 
]ine  from  a  catch  oY  song  here  and  there.     We  find 


172  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

this  custom  used  in  Skelton's  "  Moral  Plays  "  a  good 
half-century  before  the  poet's  days. 

If  Shakespeare  was  familiar  with  the  tavern  at 
Stratford-on-Avon,  he  was  probably  still  more  so 
with  the  taverns  in  London,  for  these  were  not 
merely  places  of  refreshment,  but  became  the  clubs 
of  the  time,  as  the  coffee-houses  were  at  a  later 
period,  houses  where  friend  met  friend,  a  rendezvous 
of  social  intercourse.  At  the  Mermaid  Tavern,  in 
Bread  Street,  many  of  the  poets  and  dramatists  of 
the  epoch  were  wont  to  congregate,  and,  although 
we  can  find  no  distinct  record  of  the  fact,  it  is  ex- 
tremely probable  that  Shakespeare  often  formed  one 
of  the  gathering.  Most  minute  are  the  details  which 
Shakespeare  gives  us  of  the  life  in  these  resorts. 

The  jests  were  not  always  of  the  highest  order  in 
these  taverns,  and  a  practical  joke  was  prized  above 
almost  any  other  form  of  wit.  On  the  wall  there 
was  often  a  picture  of  two  asses'  heads,  or  fools' 
heads  with  cap  and  bells,  with  a  legend  of  "We 
be  three,"  or  "  When  shall  we  three  meet  again  ? " 
In  "Twelfth  Night"  (Act  ii.  Sc.  3),  the  clown 
Feste  asks  of  Sir  Toby,  "Did  you  never  see  the 
picture  of  ■  we  three '  ? "  and  Sir  Toby  at  once  catches 
the  implied  meaning,  responding,  "  Welcome,  ass !  " 
as  the  guests  in  the  tavern  did  when  any  simpleton 
inquired  for  the  third  ass  spoken  of  in  the  inscrip- 
tion, yet  invisible  in  the  picture. 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  1 73 

The  music  in  the  tavern  was  most  frequently  made 
by  the  convivial  friends  who  met  together  there,  for 
every  gentleman  was  expected  to  be  able  to  bear  his 
part  in  vocal  music  if  he  had  anything  like  "  a  voice  ; " 
but  there  were  also  strolling  musicians,  held  in  low 
esteem,  who  would  enter  these  houses  and  seek  for 
temporary  employment  in  playing  for  some  company 
unable  to  furnish  their  own  musical  recreation.  Such 
music  was  called  a  "noise,"  occasionally.  In  that 
most  graphic  bit  of  tavern-life,  the  fourth  scene  of 
the  second  act  of  "  King  Henry  IV."  (Second  part), 
the  drawer  bids  his  companion  — 

"See  if  thou  canst  find  out  Sneak's  noise;  Mistress  Tear- 
sheet  would  fain  hear  some  music." 

In  Ben  Jonson's  "Silent  Woman"  (Act  iii.  Sc.  i), 
we  read : 

" Dauphi?ie.  Well,  there  be  guests  and  meat  now;  how 
shall  we  do  for  music  ? 

Clerimont.  The  smell  of  the  venison,  going  through  the 
streets,  will  invite  one  noise  of  fiddlers  or  other. 

Dauphine.     I  would  it  would  call  the  trumpeters  hither. 

Clerimont.  Faith,  there  is  hope ;  they  have  intelligence  of 
all  feasts.  There  is  good  correspondence  betwixt  them  and 
the  London  cooks ;  'tis  twenty  to  one  but  we  have  them." 

And  Fletcher  also  alludes  to  musicians'  "noise"  in 
several  of  his  plays. 

The  musicians  themselves  were  scarcely  regarded 
as  anything  else  tnan  mendicants.     Gosson,  in  his 


174  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

"  Short  Apologie  of  the  Schoole  of  Abuse,"  London, 
1587,  says : 

"  London  is  so  full  of  unprofitable  pipers  and  fiddlers,  that 
a  man  can  no  sooner  enter  a  tavern,  than  two  or  three  cast  of 
them  hang  at  his  heels,  to  give  him  a  dance  before  he  depart." 

They  thrust  themselves  upon  any  company  that 
gathered  for  conviviality  with,  "Will  you  have  any 
music,  gentlemen  ? "  and  seem  to  have  been  as  diffi- 
cult to  shake  off  as  Neapolitan  beggars.  In  the 
thirty-ninth  year  of  Elizabeth  (1597),  a  law  was 
promulgated  against  these  humble  sons  of  the 
Muses,  by  which  all  minstrels,  "wandering  abroad," 
were  classed  as  "rogues,  vagabonds,  and  sturdy 
beggars,"  and  were  promised  severe  punishment. 
A  little  later  on,  Cromwell  reinforced  the  edict 
with  :  — 

"  Any  persons  commonly  called  Fidlers  or  Minstrels  who 
shall  at  any  time  be  taken  playing,  fidling,  and  making  music 
in  any  inn,  ale-house,  or  tavern,  or  shall  be  taken  proffering 
themselves,  or  desiring,  or  intreating  any  ...  to  hear  them 
play  or  make  music  in  any  of  the  places  aforesaid  shall  be 
adjudged  and  declared  to  be  rogues,  vagabonds  and  sturdy 
beggars." 

Yet  sometimes  in  Elizabeth's  day  these  itinerant 
musicians  received  fat  fees.  One  anonymous  writer, 
who  brought  out  a  pamphlet  called  the  "Actor's 
Remonstrance,"  in   1643,  says  that  they  sometimes 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  1 75 

received  twenty  shillings  for  two  hours'  playing ;  but 
as  this  was  written  a  full  generation  after  the  epodi, 
and  the  statement  is  not  backed  up  by  any  proof,  ,ve 
may  assume  (especially  taking  the  Elizabethan  stat- 
ute into  consideration)  that  the  strolling  players 
were  held  of  very  low  caste,  and  eked  out  but  a 
scanty  livelihood. 

When  music  was  sent  for,  as  in  the  case  cited 
above,  it  was  generally  to  play  in  the  best  room 
of  the  tavern,  and  this  room  frequently  received 
some  especial  name.  The  larger  taverns  seem  to 
have  had  more  than  one  room  with  such  name.1 
Shakespeare  brings  in  this  nomenclature  in  "Meas- 
ure for  Measure "  (Act  ii.  Sc.  i),  where  the  clown 
alludes  to  the  "  Bunch  of  Grapes,"  not  a  tavern,  but 
an  especial  room  in  it ;  in  the  Boar's  Head  Tavern 
(Act  ii.  Sc.  4,  of  First  Part  of  "  King  Henry  IV.") 
we  find  Poins  (or  Pointz)  alluding  to  "the  Half- 
moon  ; "  and  other  instances  of  this  custom  might 
readily  be  cited. 

If  the  revellers  made  their  own  music,  they  gener- 
erally  sang  catches  together,  and  these  compositions 
were  of  the  liveliest  description,  often  (as  will  be 
seen  in  the  next  chapter)  containing  some  jest  or 
double-entendre.  We  reproduce  a  few  of  the  poems 
that  constituted  the  text  of  the  old  catches : 

1  See  the  tavern-scene  in  Fletcher's  "  Captain  "  (Act  iv.  Sc.  2)  for 
a  very  graphic  presentation  of  this  matter. 


176  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

I 

"  If  any  so  wise  is, 
That  sack  he  despises, 
Let  him  drink  his  small  beer  and  be  sober. 
Whilst  we  drink  sack  and  sing 
As  if  it  were  Spring, 
He  shall  droop  like  the  trees  in  October. 

"  But  be  sure,  overnight, 
If  this  dog  do  you  bite, 
You  take  it  henceforth  for  a  warning ; 
Soon  as  out  of  your  bed, 
To  settle  your  head, 
Take  a  hair  of  his  tail  in  the  morning." 


"  She  that  will  eat  her  breakfast  in  bed, 
And  spend  the  morn  in  dressing  of  her  head, 
And  sit  at  dinner  like  a  maiden  bride, 
And  nothing  do  all  day  but  talk  of  pride : 
Jove  of  his  mercy  may  do  much  to  save  her, 
But  what  a  case  is  he  in  that  shall  have  her?" 

3 

"  Never  let  a  man  take  heavily  the  clamour  of  his  wife, 
But  be  ruled  by  me,  and  lead  a  merry  life. 
Let  her  have  her  will  in  everything, 
If  she  scolds  then  laugh  and  sing, 

Hey  derry,  derry  derry  ding." 

Shakespeare's  own  characters  occasionally  appear 
in  early  catches,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  reproduction 
of  the  catch  by  George  Holmes,  who  was  not  the 
organist  of  Lincoln,  but  an  anterior  musician,  living 
possibly  in  the  time  of  Charles  I. 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


177 


1  m  mm 


lyS  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

Regarding  the  performance  of  the  catch,  we  can 
present  to  our  reader  the  explicit  directions  given  by 
John  Playford  in  his  "Musical  Companion,"  printed 
in  1672. 

"  I  thought  it  necessary  for  information  of  some  Songsters 
who  are  not  well  acquainted  with  the  Nature  and  Manner  of 
Singing  of  Catches,  to  give  them  these  Directions:  First,  a 
Catch  is  a  Song  for  three  Voyces,  wherein  the  several  Parts 
are  included  in  one ;  or,  as  it  is  usually  tearmed,  Three  Parts  in 
One.  Secondly,  the  manner  of  Singing  them  is  thus,  The  First 
begins  and  Sings  the  Catch  forward,  and  when  he  is  at  that 
Note  over  which  this  (:S:)  Mark  or  Signature  is  placed,  the 
Second  begins  and  Sings  forward  in  like  manner,  and  when 
he  is  singing  that  Note  over  which  the  said  Signature  is,  the 
Third  begins  and  Sings,  following  the  other,  each  Singing  it 
round  two  or  three  times  over,  and  so  conclude. 

"  This  kind  of  Mustek  hath  for  many  Years  past  been  had  in 
much  estemation  by  the  most  Judicious  and  Skilful  Professors 
of  Musick,  for  the  Excellency  of  the  Composition  and  Pleasant 
Harmony ;  and  no  late  Mustek  that  I  have  met  with  affords  so 
much  Delightful  Recreation,  though  some  fond  Ignorant  Nov- 
ices in  Mustek  have  cry'd  them  down,  because  the  height  of 
their  Skill  is  not  able  to  understand  them.  But  being  unwilling 
so  much  good  Mustek  should  be  buried  in  oblivion,  it  has  made 
me  adventure  them  once  more  into  the  World,  for  the  benefit 
of  future  Ages  :  And  I  am  sure  they  will  be  welcome  at  this 
time  to  many  Judicious  Persons,  to  whom  I  recommend  them ; 
for  this  is  a  Catching  Age,  all  kinds  of  Catches  and  Catchers 
are  abroad,  Catch  that  Catch  can,  Catch  that  Catch  may,  Thine 
Catch  it,  and  mine  Catch  it;  But  these  harmless  Catches,  my 
wish  is,  those  that  Catch  them  with  delight  to  Learn  and  for 
Instruction,  may  hereby  reap  both  Pleasure  and  Delight:  But 
those  that  Catch  at  them  with  detraction,  (as  that  is  a  Catching 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  I  79 

disease)  may  Catch  only  the  Fruits  of  their  own  Envy  and 
Malice."1 

Catches,  although  generally  in  three  parts,  were  by- 
no  means  always  so,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  collection 
entitled  "Pammelia,"  published  in  1609,  in  which 
all  numbers  of  voices  up  to  ten  parts  enter  in  the 
different  catches  and  canons.  We  give  a  repro- 
duction of  a  four-part  catch  from  "  Sympson's  Com- 
pendium of  Musick"  (1678).  The  punning  character 
of  many  of  the  catches  may  be  seen  in  certain  ones 
which  are  sung  even  to-day,  as  for  example,  Doctor 
Callcott's  "  Ah,  how  Sophia,"  which,  in  rapid  singing, 
becomes  "  A  house  afire,"  or  the  celebrated  catch 
about  Burney's  "  History  of  Music,"  in  which  "Bur- 
ney's history  "  becomes  "  Burn  his  history,"  by  a  simi- 
lar change  of  tempo.  Shakespeare's  was  emphatically 
a  punning  age,  and  any  pun,  if  it  were  never  so  bad, 
was  tolerated  and  laughed  at  in  the  reign  of  "  Good 
Queen  Bess,"  as  may  be  seen  by  the  fanciful  title  and 
preface  of  the  collection  of  catches  last  mentioned, 
the  first  collection  ever  printed. 

"  PAMMELIA.* 

"  Mustek's  Miscellanie,  or  mixed  varietie  of  pleasant  Roun- 
delays, and  delightful  Catches  of  three,  four,  five,  six,  seven, 

1  We  may  add  to  the  above  that  many  catches  had  some  "  catch," 
or  double  meaning  in  the  words,  these  double-entendres  often  being 
quite  indelicate. 

8  From  two  Greek  woros  signifying  Miscellaneous  Harmony. 


180  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


Contriv&nce  cf  Canon. 

§  1 1.  Of  Catch  or  Round. 

IMuft  not  omit  another  fort  of  Canon,  in  more 
recjueft  and  common  ufe  (though  of  leis  dig- 
nity) than  all  thole  which  we  have  mentioned  5 
and  thatais  a  Catch  or  Round  :  Some  call  it  a  Ca- 
tion in  Unifon^  or  a  Canon  confifting  of  Periods. 
The  contrivance  whereof  is  not  intercate:  for,  if 
you  compofe  any  fhort  Strain,  of  three  or  four 
Parts,  letting  them  all  within  the  ordinary  com- 
paft  of  a  Voice  5  and  then  place  one  Part  at  the 
end  of  another,  in.  what  order  you  pleafe,  fo  as 
they  may  aptly  make  one  continued  Tune  5  yotx 
have  finifhed  a  Catch : 

*     Example. 


isiliiiilil==== 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  l8l 

eight,  nine,  ten  parts  in  one.  None  so  ordinary  as  musical ; 
none  so  musical  as  not  to  all  very  pleasing  and  acceptable. 
London :  printed  by  William  Barley  for  R.  B.  and  H.  W.,  and 
are  to  be  sold  at  the  Spread  Eagle  at  the  great  north  door  of 
St.  Pauls,  1609. 

"  To  the  well  disposed  to  read,  and  to  the  merry  disposed  to 
sing. .  Amongst  other  liberal  arts,  music  for  her  part  hath  always 
been  as  liberal  in  bestowing  her  liberal  gifts  as  any  one  what- 
soever; and  that  in  such  rare  manner  for  diversity,  and  ample 
measure  for  multiplicity,  as  more  cannot  be  erpected,  except  it 
were  more  than  it  is  respected  :  yet  in  this  kind  only,  it  may 
seem  somewhat  niggardly  and  unkind  in  never  as  yet  publicly 
communicating,  but  always  privately  retaining,  and  as  it  were 
envying  to  all,  this  more  familiar  mirth  and  jocund  melody. 
But  it  may  be  music  hath  hitherto  been  defective  in  this  vein, 
because  this  vein  indeed  hath  hitherto  been  defective  in  music : 
and,  therefore,  that  fault  being  now  mended,  this  kind  of  music 
also  is  now  commended  to  all  men's  kind  acceptation.  This 
did  I  willingly  undertake,  and  have  easily  <?^ected,  that  all 
might  equally  partake  of  that  which  is  so  generally  o^ected. 
Catches  are  so  generally  affected,  I  take  it,  quia  non  superant 
cafitum,  because  they  are  so  consonant  to  all  ordinary  musical 
capacity,  being  such  indeed  as  all  such  whose  love  of  music 
exceeds  their  skill  cannot  but  commend ;  such  also,  as  all  such 
whose  skill  in  music  exceeds  their  love  of  such  slight  and  light 
fancies,  cannot  either  contemn  or  condemn :  good  art  in  all  for 
the  more  musical ;  good  mirth  and  melody  for  the  more  jovial ; 
sweet  harmony  mixed  with  much  variety ;  and  both  with  great 
facility.  Harmony  to  please,  variety  to  delight,  facility  to  in- 
vite thee.  Some  toys,  yet  musical  without  absurdity;  some 
very  musical,  yet  pleasing  without  difficulty;  light,  but  not 
without  music's  delight;  music's  pleasantness,  but  not  without 
easiness :  what  seems  old  is  at  least  renewed ;  art  having  re- 
formed what  pleasing  tunes  injurious  time  and  ignorance  had 
^formed.    The  only  indent  is  to  give  general  content,  composed 


4 


1 82  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

by  art  to  make  thee  disposed  to  mirth.  Accept,  therefore, 
kindly  what  is  done  willingly,  and  published  only  to  please 
good  company." 

During  the  same  year  (1609)  a  second  volume, 
entitled  "  Deuteromelia,"  appeared,  and  its  preface, 
quoted  in  connection  with  "Three-men's  Songs,"  is 
more  weakly  punning  than  the  preface  to  "  Pam- 
melia."  It  will  be  found  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
present  chapter.  Ravenscroft  is  believed  to  have 
been  the  compiler  of  both  volumes,  and  therefore  the 
author  of  the  hideous  prefaces. 

In  "  The  Tempest "  Shakespeare  brings  in  some 
of  his  most  ribald  tavern  music ;  this  is  natural 
enough  with  three  such  vagabonds  as  Trinculo, 
Stephano,  and  Caliban,  and  of  course  the  three-part 
catch  is  present.  In  Act  iii.  Sc.  2,  Stephano,  who, 
like  many  of  Shakespeare's  vagabonds,  is  very  musi- 
cally inclined,  says  (before  he  starts  a  catch)  : 

"  Come  on,  Trinculo,  let  us  sing. 
[Sings]  «  Flout  'em  and  skout  'em,  and  skout  'em  and  flout  'em ; 
Thought  is  free.' 

Caliban.     That's  not  the  tune. 

[Ariel  plays  the  tune  on  a  tabor  and  pipe. 

Stephano.     What  is  this  same  ? 

Trinculo.  This  is  the. tune  of  our  catch,  played  by  the 
picture  of  No-Body. 

Stephano.     If  thou  beest  a  man,  shew  thyself  in  thy  like- 
ness ; 
If  thou  beest  a  devil,  take  it  as  thou  list. 

Trinculo.     O,  forgive  me  my  sins ! 


CALIBAN.  —  "Sometimes  a  thousand  twangling  instruments 
will  hum  about  mine  ears." 

(The  Tempest,  Act  iii.  Sc.  2.) 
From  the  painting  by  Wm.  Kaulbach. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  1 83 

Stephano.     He  that  dies,  pays  all  debts:  I  defy  thee  — 
Mercy  upon  us ! 

Caliban.     Art  thou  afeard  ? 

Stephano.     No,  monster,  not  I. 

Caliban.     Be  not  afeard  ;  the  isle  is  full  of  noises, 
Sound,  and  sweet  airs,  that  give  delight,  and  hurt  not. 
Sometimes  a  thousand  twangling  instruments 
Will  hum  about  mine  ears :  and  sometimes  voices, 
That,  if  I  then  had  waked  after  long  sleep, 
Will  make  me  sleep  again :  and  then,  in  dreaming, 
The  clouds,  methought,  would  open,  and  shew  riches 
Ready  to  drop  upon  me ;  that,  when  I  waked, 
I  cried  to  dream  again. 

Stephano.     This  will  prove  a  brave  kingdom  to  me,  where 
I  shall  have  my  music  for  nothing." 

While  in  Act  ii.  Sc.  2,  Stephano  gives  some  of  the 
worst  tavern  music  of  his  time  : ■ 

"  Enter  Stephano  singing;  a  bottle  in  his  hand. 

Stephano.     *  I  shall  no  more  to  sea,  to  sea, 

Here  shall  I  die  ashore  : ■ — 
This  is  a  very  scurvy  tune  to  sing  at  a  man's  funeral ; 
Well,  here's  my  comfort.  [Drinks. 

*  The  master,  the  swabber,  the  boatswain,  and  I, 

The  gunner,  and  his  mate, 
Loved  Mall,  Meg,  and  Marian,  and  Margery, 

But  none  of  us  cared  for  Kate : 

For  she  had  a  tongue  with  a  tang, 

Would  cry  to  a  sailor,  "  Go  hang ! " 
She  loved  not  the  savour  of  tar  nor  of  pitch, 
Yet  a  tailor  might  scratch  her  where'er  she  did  itch, 

1  In  Furness  (Variomrn^Sdition)  an  article  is  quoted  which  claims 
this  to  be  the  most  graphic  of  sea-songs. 


<</ 


1 84 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


Then  to  sea,  boys,  and  let  her  go  hang.' 
This  is  a  scurvy  tune  too :     But  here's  my  comfort. 


\_Drinks." 


And  Caliban  also  sings  solos  of  a  grotesque  class, 
v  Against  tbis  amount  of  vulgar  music  we  have  the 
delicate  music  of  Ariel,  sometimes  tender,  sometimes 
playful,  forming  one  of  the  finest  of  artistic  contrasts. 
Small  wonder  that  the  lyrics  of  this  play  have  in- 
spired music  in  many  composers,  and  have  been 
set  in  innumerable  forms  ever  since  the  poet's  life- 
time. Unfortunately,  however,  the  original  settings 
of  most  of  the  beautiful  poems,  the  melodies  which 
Shakespeare  himself  was  accustomed  to  hear,  seem 
irretrievably  lost.  Doctor  Bridge  has,  however, 
unearthed  two  of  the  poems,  set  by  Johnson  (1612), 
harmonised  (1659)  by  Wilson. 


WHERE   THE   BEE   SUCKS. 
The  Tempest.  R.  Johnson.    161a. 

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I90  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Exactly  as  "The  Tempest"  presents  three  vaga- 
bonds singing  the  three-part  music,  the  catches,  and 
bacchanalian  songs  of  the  time,  so  does  "Twelfth 
Night "  introduce  us  to  a  trio  of  scamps  (Feste,  the 
clown,  being  the  most  decent  of  the  three),  who  troll 
out  their  lays  in  a  similar  manner.  And,  as  in  "  The 
Tempest "  we  find  the  earnest  side  of  music  balanced 
against  its  coarser  phases,  so  in  the  wilder  comedy  do 
we  have  lyrics,  such  as  "  Oh,  Mistress  Mine "  and 
"  Come  away,  come  away,  Death,"  as  well  as  the  lofty 
tributes  to  the  power  of  music  already  noted.  As 
the  music  of  the  dissipated  trio  (Sir  Toby  Belch, 
Sir  Andrew  Aguecheek,  and  the  clown)  introduces 
a  number  of  burdens,  we  shall  examine  them  more 
at  length  in  the  next  chapter  in  connection  with 
the  subject  of  the  old  refrains,  j  Suffice  it  to  say 
here  that  many  a  character  seems  introduced  forcibly 
and  without  reason  into  Shakespeare's  plays,  whose 
presence  will  be  readily  understood  if  the  reader 
remembers  that  three  were  necessary  to  sing  the 
regulation  catch  or  other  merry  music  which  the 
dramatist  desired.  Thus,  for  example,  the  otherwise 
uncalled-for  appearance  of  the  two  pages  in  *  As  You 
Like  It "  (Act  v.  Sc.  3).  Touchstone  and  Audrey 
are  together,  when  two  pages  enter,  the  first  saluting 
with,  "  Well  met,  honest  gentlemen."  It  is  not  long 
before  we  discover  why  these  two  wanderers  have 
walked  upon  the  stage.     The  scene  goes  on : 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  I9I 

"  Touchstone.     By  my  troth,  well   met :   Come,  sit,  sit,  and 

a  song. 

Second  Page.     We  are  for  you :  sit  i'  the  middle.1 

First  Page.    Shall  we  clap  into  't  roundly  without  hawking, 

or  spitting,    or   saying  we  are  hoarse ;   which  are  the  only 

prologues  to  a  bad  voice? 

Second  Page.     V  faith,  i'  faith ;  and  both  in  a  tune,  like  two 

gipsies  on  a  horse. 

SONG. 

I. 

It  was  a  lover,  and  his  lass, 

With  a  hey,  and  a  ho,  and  a  hey  nonino, 
That  o'er  the  green  corn-field  did  pass, 

In  the  spring  time,  the  only  pretty  ring  time, 
When  birds  do  sing,  hey  ding  a  ding,  ding ; 
Sweet  lovers  love  the  spring. 

II. 

Between  the  acres  of  the  rye, 

With  a  hey,  aud  a  ho,  and  a  hey  nonino, 

These  pretty  country  folks  would  lie. 
In  spring  time,  etc. 

in. 

This  carol  they  began  that  hour, 

With  a  hey,  and  a  ho,  and  a  hey  nonino, 

How  that  a  life  was  but  a  flower. 
In  spring  time,  etc. 

IV. 

And  therefore  take  the  present  time, 

With  a  hey,  and  a  ho,  and  a  hey  nonino, 

1  Alluding  to  the  old  English  rhyme : 
"  Hey-diddle-diddle, 
Thfcfool  in  the  middle." 


192 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


For  love  is  crowned  with  the  prime. 
In  spring  time,  etc. 

Touchstone.  Truly,  young  gentlemen,  though  there  was  no 
great  matter  in  the  ditty,  yet  the  note  was  very  untuneable. 

First  Page.  You  are  deceived,  sir ;  we  kept  time,  we  lost 
not  our  time. 

Touchstone.  By  my  troth,  yes ;  I  count  it  but  time  lost  to 
hear  such  a  foolish  song.  God  be  with  you ;  and  God  mend 
your  voices  !  Come,  Audrey.  [Exeunt." 

The  song  which  is  framed  in  so  much  of  comment 
fortunately  is  preserved  to  us  in  its  original  setting. 
We  present  it  with  its  contemporaneous  music. 


"IT   WAS   A   LOVER   AND    HIS    LASS." 

Quoted  by  Chappell  from  an  old  MS.  bearing  date  A.  D.  1639, 
in  Advocate's  Library,  Edinburgh. 

Lively. 


rut    l  \ 


It  was   a     lov-er  andhislasse Withahey,withaho,witha 


now  ne  no,  And  a     hey  .   .   .    nonee,no,no,no. 


im5^ 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


193 


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That  o'er  the  greene  corne  field  did  passe  In  Spring  tyme,  in 


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Spring  tyme,  in  Spring  tyme,theon-lieprettie  ring  tyme,  When 


fc£ — « — "    y  p 


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*    J    F 


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Birds  doosing,  Hey  ding  a  ding  ading,Hey  ding  a  ding  a 


%=?=£ 


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ding,  Hey  dingadingading,  SuietLovers  love  the  Spring. 


t: 


Si 


194  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

The  antiquity  of  three-part  rounds  and  catches 
is  very  great.  One  of  the  rounds  that  is  sung  in 
England  and  America  to-day,  the  well-known  — 

"Turn  again,  Whittington, 
Thou  worthy  citizen, 
Lord  Mayor  of  London,"— 

was  composed  as  long  ago  as  1453,  when  Sir  John 
Norman  was  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  and,  instead  of 
marching  in  procession  through  the  city  streets,  on 
the  morning  of  St.  Simon  and  Jude's  Day,  took  his 
pageant  along  the  Thames,  by  water.  The  water- 
men, grateful  for  such  an  innovation,  made  the 
round  — 

"Row  the  boat,  Norman,  row, 

Heave  ho,  and  rum  below, ' 

Row  to  thy  leman," — 

of  which  we  append  the  music.  The  oldest  piece  of 
skilful  music  now  extant  is  the  round,  "Sumer  is 
icumen  in,"  preserved  in  manuscript  in  the  Brit- 
ish P»Iuseum  and  dating  probably  from  a.  d.  121 5. 
"  Three  Blind  Mice  "  is  a  catch  (originally  sung  with 
vulgar  words)  of  the  Shakespearian  epoch,  and  other 
familiar  rounds  are  equally  old. 

1 "  Heave  ho  and  rum  below  "  was  one  of  the  oldest  and  most 
employed  refrains  ;  it  appears  in  many  of  ihe  old  ballads  and 
romances. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


195 


I 


ROW   THE   BOAT,   NORMAN,    ROW. 


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3SEE3 


— 1 1 1 — 

■#■-#■■#- 

Nor  -   man,      row, 


Row 


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— 1 r 

Heave     ho 


and 


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be  -  low, 


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Row      to 


thy 


Le    -    man. 


Shakespeare  alludes  to  the  habit  of  singing  many 
of  the  lighter  songs  in  three  parts.  We  have  already 
cited  the  clown,  in  "  Winter's  Tale  "  (Act  iv.  Sc.  2), 
giving  an  allusion  to  "three-men  song-men,"  and 
in  the  same  play  (Act  iv.  Sc.  3)  we  find  Autoly- 
cus  vending  ballads  which  were  to  be  sung  in  three 
parts.  The  title  of  "Three  Merry  Men  be  We," 
spoken  of  in  "Twelfth  Night,"  also  suggests  the 
three-part  singing  which  was  in  such  vogue.  Nay- 
lor,  in  his  "  Shakespeare  and  Music  "  (p.  83),  gives 
several  examples  of  the  use  of  the  term  "  three-men  " 
as  applied  to  vocal  music. 

Nevertheless,  Oliphant,  whose  researches  are  en- 
titled to  some  respect,  believes  that  the  term 
"Freemen's  Songs/'  is  not  a  corruption  of  "Three- 
men's  Songs,"  although  in  this  he  stands  in  opposi- 


I96  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

tion  to  many  authorities,  from  Ritson  to  Naylor.  In 
his  "  Musa  Madrigalesca  "  (p.  242),  he  cites  the  follow- 
ing preface  to  the  second  book  of  catches,  published 
in  1609.  As  it  is  another  example  of  the  wretched 
punning  which  was  held  to  be  such  a  delightful 
accomplishment  in  Shakespeare's  day,  and  of  the 
forcible  introduction  of  unnecessary  Latin  (also  found 
in  many  plays  of  the  time),  we  reproduce  the  entire 
preface,  together  with  Oliphant's  comments  upon  it. 

«  DEUTEROMELIA, 

MOr  the  second  part  of  Music's  Melodie,  or  melodious 
music  of  pleasant  roundelays ;  K.  H.  mirth,  or  Freemen's 
songs,  and  such  delightful  catches.  Qui  canere  potest  canat. 
Catch  that  catch  can.  Ut  mel  os,  sic  cor  melos  afficit  et  reficit. 
London:  printed  for  Thomas  Adams,  dwelling  in  Paul's 
Church-yard,  at  the  sign  of  the  White  Lion,  1609. 

" 4  Mirth  and  music  to  the  cunning  catcher, 
Derth  and  physic  to  the  coney-catcher.' 

"  Secundce  cogitationes  are  ever,  they  say,  meliores,  and  why 
may  not  then  secundce  cantiones  as  well  be  dulciores  f  I  pre- 
sume they  are  so ;  and  that  makes  me  resume  this  vein,  with 
hope  that  I  shall  not  consume  in  vain  my  labour  therein.  For, 
first,  the  kind  acceptation  of  the  former  impression,  is  as  a 
new  invitation  to  this  latter  edition;  though  not  of  the  same 
things,  yet  of  things  of  the  same  condition :  full  of  the  same 
delectation,  made  to  please  as  the  other  were;  made  truly 
musical  with  art  by  my  correction,  and  yet  plain  and  capable 
with  ease  by  my  direction. 

"  Neither  can  he  that  is  the  most  able  musician  say,  but 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  1 97 

that  of  these  most  men,  almost  all  men  are  capable,  that  are 
not  altogether  unmusical ;  neither  can  he  that  is  most  spiteful 
say,  but  they  are  very  delightful,  aye,  and  someway  gainful 
too  (yet  more  painful  to  me,  I  am  sure,  than  gainful) ;  but 
tho'  there  be  but  little  to  be  gotten  by  them,  yet  pity  were  it 
such  mirth  should  be  forgotten  of  us ;  and  therefore,  to  make 
an  end,  I  say  no  more,  but 

««'...  Si  quid  novisti  dulcius  istis, 

Candidus  imperti ;  si  non,  his  utere  mecum ;  ■ 

either  commend  me  or  come  mend  me,  and  so  I  end  me,  as  reso- 
lute as  thou  art  dissolute." 

Oliphant's  comments  on  the  above  are : 

"  From  the  foregoing  preface  it  is,  I  think,  quite  clear  that 
Deuteromelia  is  a  second  publication  by  the  editor  of  Pam- 
melia.  The  terms  K.  H.  mirth  and  Freemen's  songs  have 
given  rise  to  considerable  discussion.  It  is  supposed  that  the 
former  stands  for  King  Henry's  mirth;  that  is,  songs  or 
catches  of  a  merry  nature,  which  were  favourites  with  that 
jovial  prince.  I  think  it  likely  to  be  so,  but  am  not  aware 
of  anything  either  for  or  against  the  matter,  except  conjecture. 

"  How  the  meaning  of  Freemen's  songs  could  ever  appear 
doubtful,  I  know  not,  nor  can  I  imagine  how  Warren  could  be 
guilty  of  such  a  stupid  mistake  as  to  suppose  that  Freeman 
was  the  name  of  a  composer ;  for  in  his  collection  is  inserted 
Of  all  the  birds  that  I  ever  see,  (which  is  one  of  the  three  part 
Freemen's  songs  in  Deuteromelia),  with  the  name  prefixed  of 
Nicholas  Freeman,  1667  !  nearly  sixty  years  after  the  original 
publication.  Ritson  has  some  absurd  notion  of  Freemen 
being  a  mistake  for  Three-men,  because  Shakspeare  speaks 
of  Three-men-song  men,  that  is,  men  who  could  sing  songs  of 
three  parts :  but  if  he  yrer  saw  the  book  of  which  I  am  now 
writing,  he  must  there  have  found  also  Freemen's  songs  to 


198  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

four  voices^  which  sets  that  matter  at  rest.  Drayton,  in  his 
1  Legend  of  Thomas  Cromwell,  Earl  of  Es*sex,'  puts  the  follow- 
ing verses  in  that  nobleman's  mouth : 

"  *  Of  Freemen's  Catches  to  the  Pope  I  sing, 

Which  wan  much  license  to  my  countrymen ; 
Thither  the  which  I  was  the  first  to  bring, 
That  were  unknown  in  Italy  till  then.' 

"  He  went  to  Italy  in  the  year  1510." 

Nevertheless,  the  weight  of  evidence  seems  to  be 
in  favour  of  the  derivation  from  "Three  men,"  and 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  catches  and  "  Free- 
men's Songs  "  are  in  three  parts,  as  we  shall  see  in 
the  succeeding  chapter. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Bacchanalian  Music,  continued  —  A  Scottish  Melody  Used  by 
Shakespeare  —  Table-music  in  Elizabethan  Days  —  Refrains 
of  Catches  and  Ballads  —  Hunt's-ups — Serenades  —  Morning 
Songs. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  chief  bacchanalian 
music  of  Shakespeare  is  to  be  found  in  "  Twelfth 
Night,"  while  the  leading  tavern-scenes  are  to  be 
discovered  in  the  two  parts  of  "King  Henry  IV." 
Nevertheless,  to  our  collection  of  musical  vagabonds 
must  be  added  a  rascal  of  much  deeper  dye,  a  man 
who  seems  a  living  proof  that  the  music-maker,  as 
well  as  the  music-hater,  "  is  fit  for  treason,  stratagem, 
and  spoils,"  —  Iago.  The  scene  ("  Othello,"  Act  ii. 
Sc.  3)  where  the  crafty  Iago,  by  simulated  good-fel- 
lowship, leads  Cassio  to  his  intoxication  and  ruin 
runs: 

"  Iago.     Some  wine,  ho ! 

1  And  let  me  the  canakin  clink,  clink ;  [Sings. 

And  let  me  the  canakin  clink : 
A  Soldier's  a  man ; 
A  life's  but  a  span ; 
Why  then,  let  a  soldier  drink.' 
Some  wine,  boys !         %  [  Wine  brought  in, 

Cassio.     'Fore  Heaven,  an  excellent  song. 
199 


200  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Iago.  I  learned  it  in  England,  where  (indeed)  they  are 
most  potent  in  potting;  your  Dane,  your  German,  and  your 
swag-bellied  Hollander,  —  Drink,  ho  !  —  are  nothing  to  your 
English. 

Cassio.     Is  your  Englishman  so  expert  in  his  drinking  ? 

Iago.  Why,  he  drinks  you,  with  facility,  your  Dane  dead 
drunk. 

Iago.     O  sweet  England ! 

4  King  Stephen  was  a  worthy  peer, 

His  breeches  cost  him  but  a  crown; 
He  held  them  sixpence  all  too  dear, 
With  that  he  call'd  the  tailor  —  lown 

He  was  a  wight  of  high  renown, 

And  thou  art  but  of  low  degree : 
*Tis  pride  that  pulls  the  country  down, 
Then  take  thine  auld  cloak  about  thee.' 
Some  wine,  ho ! 

Cassio.     Why,  this  is  a  more  exquisite  song  than  the  other. 
Iago.     Will  you  hear  it  again  ? 

Cassio.  No ;  for  I  hold  him  to  be  unworthy  of  his  place, 
that  does  those  things." 

Of  the  first  song  the  original  music  is  not  traceable,1 
but  the  second  snatch  of  rollicking  music  can  be 
traced  home ;  it  was  sung  to  an  old  Scottish  melody. 

1  A  somewhat  similar  catch,  however,  by  Doctor  Byrd,  is  given 
in  the  collection  called  "  Pammelia  "  (1609),  running: 

"  Come  drink  to  me, 
And  I  to  thee, 
And  then  shall  we 
Full  well  agree. 

"  I've  loved  the  jolly  tankard 

Full  seven  winters  and  more  ; 
I  loved  it  so  long, 
That  I  went  upon  the  score. 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  201 

We  give  the  melody  both  with  its  original  and  its 
Shakespearian  words. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  seen  the  music 
of  the  tavern  called  a  "  noise,"  and  the  name  was  by 
no  means  misapplied,  for  much  of  this  minstrelsy 
was  of  the  loudest  description.  Not  only  was  this 
the  case,  but  table-music  (z.  e.  music  played  during 
meals)  in  general  was  liked  in  proportion  to  its  loud- 
ness by  many  of  the  less  cultivated  patrons,  even 
those  of  high  rank.  Writing  of  Queen  Elizabeth's 
table-music,  an  authority  says  : ■ 

".Elizabeth  used  to  be  regaled  during  dinner  with  twelve 
trumpets  and  two  kettle-drums ;  which,  together  with  fifes, 
cornets,  and  side-drums,  made  the  hall  ring  for  half  an  hour 
together." 

It  may  be  incidentally  mentioned  that  the  word 
"table-music"  was  also  used  in  another  sense  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  Two,  three,  four,  or  more 
singers  would  often  sit  at  a  table,  instead  of  stand- 
ing, while  executing  their  music ;  such  compositions 
as  were  printed  with  the  intention  of  being  thus  sung 

"  Who  loveth  not  the  tankard, 
He  is  no  honest  man ; 
And  he  is  no  right  soldier, 
That  loveth  not  the  can. 

"Tap  the  cannikin,  trole  the  cannikin, 
Toss  the  cannikin,  turn  the  cannikin. 
Hold  now,  good  son,  and  fill  us  a  fresh  can, 
That  we  may  quaff  it  round  from  man  to  man.'' 

1  P.  Hentzner's  "  Itinerarium,"  p.  53. 


202 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


% 


TAKE   THY   OLD    CLOAK   ABOUT   THEE, 


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«E 


This       winter's  weather       wax-eth  cold,  And 

King      Stephen  was      a       worthy  peer,  His 


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m 


r^ 


^— * 


#— =- 


w* 


frost  doth  freese  on      ev  -  'ry  hill,  And  Boreas  blowes  his 

breeches  cost     him     but  a  crown,  He  held  them  six-pence 

J 1_ 


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SE3 


b--g=8- 


•TS- 


-*— *. 


pn 


*=B 


:t 


*— * 


i        i     r       r     T"  *•    ? 

blasts  soe  bold,     That     all  our  kye        are   like  to  spill : 
all    too   dear,     With    that  he  called    the  tailor"lown" 


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u-l      r      7  r       J      J 

Then      Bell  my  wife,         who     loves    no  strife,      She 
was     a  wight         of      high     re-nown,      And 


He 


-•—*- 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


203 


P 


55&=*^y=S^ 


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vr=f 


t 


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r  u  1 

sayd  un-to        me   qui-et-lye,      Rise  up,  and  save   cow 
thou  art  but       of    low  de-gree.   'Tis  pride  that  pulls  the 


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L  ■    :     r   f 

Crumbocke's  life,        Man,  put  thine  old   cloake   about  thee, 
coun- try  down,    Then  take  thine  old   cloake   about  thee. 


m 


m 


were  called  "table-music."  We  have  given  an  exam- 
ple of  Morley's  "  Now  is  the  Month  of  Maying,"  ar- 
ranged for  two  voices  in  this  manner.  (See  Chapter 
VI.)  The  book  was  laid  on  the  table  between  the 
two  singers,  each  of  whom  could  read  his  part  from 
his  own  side  of  the  table,  as  they  sat  opposite  each 
9th  er. 

We  now  quote  a  scene  from  "Twelfth  Night," 
which  may  be  regarded  as  the  most  typical  one  con- 
nected with  the  music  of  the  tavern  in  all  the  works 
of  Shakespeare,  although  it  occurs,  not  in  an  inn,  but 
in  the  house  of  Olivia.  The  reader  will  bear  in  mind 
what  has  already  been  stated  regarding  the  loudness 


204  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

of  most  of  this  music,  and  will  readily  comprehend 

the  indignation   of   Olivia,   Malvolio,  and  Maria.     It 

is  the  third  scene  of  the  second  act  of  the  great 

comedy. 

"Enter  Clown. 

Sir  Andrew.     Here  comes  the  fool,  i'  faith. 

Clown.  How,  now,  my  hearts?  Did  you  never  see  the 
picture  of  we  three? 

Sir  Toby.     Welcome,  ass.     Now  let's  have  a  catch. 

Sir  Andrew.  By  my  troth,  the  fool  has  an  excellent 
breast.  I  had  rather  than  forty  shillings  I  had  such  a  leg, 
and  so  sweet  a  breath  to  sing,  as  the  fool  hath.  In  sooth, 
thou  wast  in  very  gracious  fooling  last  night,  when  thou 
spokest  of  Pigrogromitus,  of  the  Vapians  passing  the  equi- 
noctial of  Queubus;  'twas  very  good,  i'  faith.  I  sent  thee  six- 
pence for  thy  leman.     Hadst  it? 

Clown.  I  did  impeticos  thy  gratillity ;  for  Malvolio's  nose 
is  no  whipstock:  My  lady  has  a  white  hand,  and  the  myrmi- 
dons are  no  bottle-ale  houses. 

Sir  Andrew.  Excellent!  Why,  this  is  the  best  fooling, 
when  all  is  done.     Now,  a  song. 

Sir  Toby.  Come  on ;  there  is  sixpence  for  you :  let's  have 
a  song. 

Sir  Andrew.  There's  a  testril  of  me  too;  if  one  knight 
give  a  — 

Clown.  Would  you  have  a  love-song,  or  a  song  of  good 
life? 

Sir  Toby.     A  love-song,  a  love-song. 

Sir  Andrew.     Ay,  ay;  I  care  not  for  good  life. 

SONG. 

Clown.    O  mistress  mine,  where  are  you  roaming? 
O,  stay  and  hear ;  your  true  love's  coming, 
That  can  sing  both  high  and  low : 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  205 

Trip  no  farther,  pretty  sweeting ; 
Journey's  end  in  lovers'  meeting, 
Every  wise  man's  son  doth  know. 

Sir  Andrew.     Excellent  good,  i'  faith ! 
Sir  Toby.     Good,  good. 

Clown.    What  is  love?  'tis  not  hereafter; 

Present  mirth  hath  present  laughter; 

What's  to  come,  is  still  unsure : 
In  delay  there  lies  no  plenty ; 
Then  come  kiss  me,  sweet-and-twenty. 

Youth's  a  stuff  will  not  endure. 

Sir  Andrew.     A  mellifluous  voice,  as  I  am  true  knight 

Sir  Toby.     A  contagious  breath. 

Sir  Andrew.     Very  sweet  and  contagious,  i'  faith. 

Sir  Toby.  To  hear  by  the  nose,  it  is  dulcet  in  contagion. 
But  shall  we  make  the  welkin  dance  indeed  ?  Shall  we  rouse 
the  night-owl  in  a  catch,  that  will  draw  three  souls  out  of  one 
weaver  ? 1  shall  we  do  that  ? 

Sir  Andrew.  An  you  love  me,  let's  do't :  I  am  a  dog  at  a 
catch. 

Clown.     By'r  lady,  sir,  and  some  dogs  will  catch  well. 

Sir  Andrew.  Most  certain:  let  our  catch  be,  'Thou 
knave.5 

Clown.  '  Hold  thy  peace,  thou  knave,'  knight  ?  I  shall 
be  constrain'd  in't  to  call  thee  knave,  knight. 

Sir  Andrew.  'Tis  not  the  first  time  I  have  constrain'd  one 
to  call  me  knave.      Begin,  fool ;  it  begins,  ■  Hold  thy  peace.' 

Clown.     I  shall  never  begin,  if  I  hold  my  peace. 

1  Schmidt  says  that  the  weavers  in  Elizabethan  times  were 
mostly  refugees  from  th*  Netherlands,  and  therefore  Calvinists, 
who  were  much  addicted  to  psalm-singing. 


206  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Sir  Andrew.     Good,  i'  faith  !     Come,  begin. 

[  They  sing  a  catch. 

Enter    Maria. 

Maria.  What  a  catter wauling  do  you  keep  here !  If  my 
lady  have  not  called  up  her  steward,  Malvolio ;  and  bid  him 
turn  you  out  of  doors,  never  trust  me. 

Sir  Toby.  My  lady's  a  Cataian,  we  are  politicians ;  Mal- 
volio's  a  Peg-a-Ramsey,  and  '  Three  merry  men  be  we.'  Am 
not  I  consanguineous  ?  Am  I  not  of  her  blood  ?  Tilly-vally, 
lady !     i  There  dwelt  a  man  in  Babylon,  lady,  lady ! ' 

{Singing. 

Clown.     Beshrew  me,  the  knight's  in  admirable  fooling. 

Sir  Andrew.  Ay,  he  does  well  enough,  if  he  be  disposed, 
and  so  do  I  too ;  he  does  it  with  a  better  grace,  but  I  do  it 
more  natural. 

Sir  Toby.     <■  O,  the  twelfth  day  of  December,' —  [Singing. 

Maria.     For  the  love  o'  God,  peace. 

Enter    Malvolio. 

Malvolio.  My  masters,  are  you  mad?  or  what  are  you? 
Have  you  no  wit,  manners,  nor  honesty,  but  to  gabble  like 
tinkers  at  this  time  of  night?  Do  you  make  an  alehouse  of 
my  lady's  house,  that  ye  squeak  out  your  coziers'  catches  with- 
out any  mitigation  or  remorse  of  voice  ?  Is  there  no  respect 
of  place,  persons,  nor  time,  in  you  ? 

Sir  Toby.  We  did  keep  time,  sir,  in  our  catches.   Sneck  up ! 

Malvolio.  Sir  Toby,  I  must  be  round  with  you.  My  lady 
bade  me  tell  you,  that,  though  she  harbours  you  as  her  kins- 
man, she's  nothing  allied  to  your  disorders.  If  you  can 
separate  yourself  and  your  misdemeanours,  you  are  welcome 
to  the  house ;  if  not,  an  it  would  please  you  to  take  leave  of 
her,  she  is  very  willing  to  bid  you  farewell. 

Sir  Toby.  •  Farewell,  dear  heart,  since  I  must  needs  be 
gone/ 


Sir  Toby.  —  "  Shall  I  bid  him  go%  and  spare  not  ?  " 

(Twelfth  Night,  Act  ii.  Sc.  3.) 


From  th*  painting  by  Griitzner. 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC  207 

Maria.     Nay,  good  Sir  Toby. 

Clown.     •  His  eyes  do  show  his  days  are  almost  done.' 

Malvolio.     Is't  even  so? 

Sir  Toby.     '  But  I  will  never  die.' 

Clown.     Sir  Toby,  there  you  lie. 

Malvolio.     This  is  much  credit  to  you. 

Sir  Toby.     ■  Shall  I  bid  him  go  ? '  {Singing. 

Clown.     '  What  an  if  you  do  ? ' 

Sir  Toby.     ■  Shall  I  bid  him  go,  and  spare  not  ? ' 

Clown.     '  O,  no,  no,  no,  no,  you  dare  not.' 

Sir  Toby.  Out  o'  time  ?  sir,  ye  lie.  —  Art  any  more  than  a 
steward?  Dost  thou  think,  because  thou  art  virtuous,  there 
shall  be  no  more  cakes  and  ale  ? 

Clown.  Yes,  by  Saint  Anne;  and  ginger  shall  be  hot  i' 
the  mouth  too." 

This  scene  is  as  full  of  musical  allusions  as  an 
egg  of  meat ;  not  even  the  music-teaching  scene  in 
"  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew,"  or  the  musical  dialogue 
between  Lucetta  and  Julia  in  "Two  Gentlemen  of 
Verona,"  can  compare  with  it  in  point  of  constant 
musical  metaphor ;  it  is  the  most  continuously  musi- 
cal scene  to  be  found  in  Shakespeare.  A  certain 
prolixity  of  comment  may  therefore  be  permitted. 
"The  fool  has  an  excellent  breast,"  speaks  of 
Feste's  good  vocal  qualities.  Shakespeare  demanded 
a  good  vocalist  in  this  part,  for  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  clown  appears  not  only  in  the  catch- 
music  of  this  scene  (and  in  the  love-song),  but  in 
tender  and  earnest  music  that  draws  forth  the  most 
enthusiastic  encomium  from  the  duke.    Knight,  prob- 


208  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

ably  the  most  musical  of  the  Shakespearian  com* 
mentators,  cites  Warton  and  Tusser  as  using  the 
word  "  breast "  in  this  sense,  the  latter  saying,  — 

"  Thence  for  my  voice,  I  must  (no  choice) 
Away,  of  force,  like  posting-horse. 
For  sundry  men,  had  placards  then 

Such  child  to  take ; 
The  better  breast,  the  lesser  rest, 
To  serve  the  quire,  now  there,  now  here,"  — 

which  refers  to  the  impressment  of  children  in  the 
royal  choirs. 

If  Knight  is  to  be  called  the  most  musical  of  the 
commentators,  Doctor  Johnson  and  Steevens  may  be 
pilloried  as  the  least  so.  We  have  already  seen 
Johnson  apologising  for  Shakespeare's  musical  ten- 
dencies ;  Steevens  writes  himself  down  an  —  antago- 
nist of  music,  in  the  following  comment  upon  the 
above  line :  ■ 

"  I  suppose  this  cant  term  ["  breast "]  to  have  been  current 
among  the  musicians  of  the  age.  All  professions  have  in 
some  degree  their  jargon ;  and  the  remoter  they  are  from 
liberal  science,  and  the  less  consequential  to  the  general  inter- 
ests of  life,  the  more  they  strive  to  hide  themselves  behind 
affected  terms  and  barbarous  phraseology." 

As  regards  the  love-song,  "  Oh,  Mistress  Mine," 
it    exists    in    the    form    in  which    Shakespeare  was 

'Another  proof  that  Furness's  lenient  judgment  of  Steevens 
was  a  too  kindly  view  of  the  case. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC, 


209 


wont  to  hear  it  sung.  "Twelfth  Night"  was  prob- 
ably written  in  1599,  or  1600,  and  is  mentioned  in 
John  Manningham's  "  Diary  "  (in  the  British  Museum) 
Feb.  2,  1 60 1  (2)  ;  the  tune  of  this  song  is  to  be 
found  in  Morley's  "  Consort  Lessons,"  printed  in 
1599,  and  was  composed  before  this  time,  since  it 
is  also  found  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  "Virginal  Book," 
arranged  by  Byrd.  We  give  the  song  with  the 
harmonies  of  the  latter  musician.  The  words  have 
been  set  some  twenty  times  since  this  original 
version ! 


"O   MISTRESS   MINE." 


Expressive. 

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OMisstress  mine,  Where  are  you  roaming  ?  O   Misstress  mine, 


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Where         are  you  roaming  FO    stay  and  hear  Your  true  love  coming 


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210  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

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no       further,    pret  -  ty   sweet  -  ing,    Jour-ney's  end 


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in  Lovers  meeting  Ev  -  e  -  ry  Mother's  Son 


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The  next  musical  point  is  the  punning  on  the 
words  of  the  catch,  "  Hold  thy  Peace."  The  origi- 
nal music  of  this  catch  is  given  by  both  Burney  and 
Hawkins,  although  neither  cite  their  source  of  deriva- 
tion. We  print  this  catch  that  the  reader  may  see 
for   himself    the    comical   word-play   which     Shake- 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


211 


speare  has  wreathed  around  it.  The  catch  was 
probably  begun  slowly,  gradually  taken  quicker  and 
quicker,  until  it  ended  as  if  it  were  an  actual  tavern 
brawl. 


CATCH. 


"Twelfth  Night.' 


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Hold       thy  peace      and  I      prithee,  hold  thy  peace, 


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Thou  knave, 


hold  thy  peace,     thou  knave, 


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Thou  kriavi 


The  next  musical  point  that  claims  attention  is 
Sir  Toby's  sentence,  beginning  "  My  lady's  a  Ca- 
talan." Sir  Toby  is  in  that  highly  convivial  frame 
of  mind  which  accompanies  the  early  stages  of 
inebriation,  and  the  refrains  and  burdens  of  many 
different  songs  jumble  themselves  together  in  his 
brain.  "  Peg-a-Ramsey  "  was  an  old  tune  with  very 
lively  words  attached.  From  the  character  of  some 
of  these  it  would  seem  that  a  "  Peg-a-Ramsey " 
might  mean  a  scMd,  a  nagging  person. 


212 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


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"PEG-A-RAMSEY." 
Moderate  Time. 


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When  I  was  a  Bach-e-lor  I      liv'd  a     merry   life,    But 

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I   but  go  to      Is-ling-ton  My  Wife  is  watching  there. 

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The  ballad  contains  numerous  verses  in  the  same  hen-pecked  spirit. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  213 

"  Three  merry  men  be  we  "  was  taken  from  the  old 
ballad  of  "  Arthur  a  Bland,"  or  "  Hey  down  a  down," 
a  musical  tale  of  a  jolly  tanner  of  Nottinghamshire, 
who  goes  into  the  forest  and  meets  Robin  Hood. 
The  pair  have  a  lusty  bout  of  quarterstaff,  in  which 
both  are  badly  bruised.  Robin  Hood  finally  begs 
Arthur  to  join  his  band,  which  the  latter  does.  He 
proves  to  be  a  relative  of  Little  John,  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  of  the  outlaws ;  when  they  are  met 
together  the  verse  ensues  : 

"  The  Robin  Hood  took  them  both  by  the  hands,1 
And  danc'd  round  about  the  oke  tree  : 
For  three  merry  men,  and  three  merry  men, 
And  three  merry  men  we  be. 

"  And  ever  hereafter,  as  long  as  we  live, 
We  three  will  be  as  one  ; 
The  wood  it  shall  ring,  and  the  old  wife  sing, 
Of  Robin  Hood,  Arthur  and  John." 

The  old  melody  still  exists,  and  we  append  it. 
"Tilly-vally "  may  possibly  be  the  burden  of  some 
old  ballad,  although  White  suggests  that  it  might 
have  been  a  cant  term  of  disparagement ;  in  this  all 
is  conjecture.  The  next  phrase  alludes  to  an  old 
ballad   of  which    Bishop   Percy,   in  his  "Reliques," 

1  These  lines  can  be  cited  in  favour  of  either  the  "  three-men's- 
song  "  or  the  "  free-men 's^ong  "  theory,  alluded  to  in  the  preceding 
chapter. 


214 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


Tune  of  "THREE  MERRY  MEN  BE  WE." 
Boldly. 


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When  Phoebus  had  melted  the    sickles    of      Ice  With  a 


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snow.  .  .  .      Bold   Rob-in  Hood  he   would  ramble  a 

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way       To     frol-ick   a  -  broad  with  his       bow.  .  . 


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SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  2 1  5 

quotes  a  single  verse.  The  ballad  is  to  be  found 
entire  in  the  Pepys  collection,  but  is  prolix  and  dull. 
The  verse  alluded  to  by  Sir  Toby  runs : 

"  There  dwelt  a  man  in  Babylon 
Of  reputation  great  by  fame  ; 
He  took  to  wife  a  fair  woman, 
Susanna  she  was  called  by  name : 
A  woman  fair  and  virtuous  ; 

Lady,  Lady : 
Why  should  we  not  of  her  learn  thus 

To  live  godly  ?  " 

The  song  was  called  "  Constant  Susanna."  "  Lady, 
lady,"  was  a  common  refrain  in  many  of  the  old 
ballads ;  Mercutio  sings  it  in  "  Romeo  and  Juliet" 
(Act  ii.  Sc.  4).  "  Oh,  the  twelfth  day  of  December  " 
has  not  been  satisfactorily  traced ;  it  was  probably  a 
ballad  of  some  kind. 

The  absolute  fidelity  to  nature  of  this  entire  scene 
is  remarkable ;  it  is  the  half -drunken  man,  exactly 
as  one  may  find  him  to-day,  whose  readiest  vent  of 
high  spirits  is  in  song ;  nothing  can  stop  him,  noth- 
ing check  his  torrent  of  fragmentary  harmony.  As 
to  the  gabbling  "like  tinkers,"  it  may  be  recalled 
that  the  tinkers  had  a  rough  music  of  their  own, 
frequently  alluded  to  by  the  old  dramatists  as  a  type 
of  coarse  music.  "  Now  God  be  with  old  Simeon," 
the  catch  particularly  affected  by  this  strolling  fra- 
ternity, has  already  been  spoken  of  in  Chapter  IV. 


216  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

"  Cozier' s  catches  "  carries  out  the  same  simile,  for 
a  "cozier"  was  a  person  who  botched  his  work, — 
generally  a  poor  tailor  or  cobbler. 

There  now  follows  a  musical  scene  which  is  sui 
generis ;  an  entire  song  is  interwoven  by  Shake- 
speare into  the  action.  Sir  Toby's  bewildered  mind 
is  ready  to  catch  any  passing  impression,  provided  it 
lead  to  music,  on  which  at  the  moment  his  thoughts 
are  most  intent.  As  Malvolio  comes  to  the  words, 
"  She  is  very  willing  to  bid  you  farewell,"  he  is  at 
once  reminded  of  a  song  by  Robert  Jones,  a  famous 
lutenist  and  composer  for  that  instrument  and  for 
the  voice.  The  song  is  entitled  "  Corydon's  Fare- 
well to  Phyllis."  It  appears  in  "  The  First  Booke 
of  Ayres,  composed  by  Robert  Jones,"  folio.  Printed 
for  T.  Este,  1601.  It  is  given  by  Rimbault  in  his 
"Musical  Illustrations  of  Ancient  English  Poetry." 
We  give  the  music  and  dialogue  as  they  were  inter- 
spersed in  the  Shakespearian  performances. 


CORYDON'S  FAREWELL  TO  PHILLIS. 
Sir  Toby.  Robert  Jones. 

tor* 


I 


Fare  -well,  dear  love  ;  since  thou  wilt  needs  be  -  gone, 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


217 


(Maria.    Nay,  good  Sir  Toby.) 
Clown. 


(Malvolio. 
Is'teven  so.) 


Bkhd    i  L&*  ^rt 

-A     -1                  = 

His    eyes  do  shew,     his    life     is 

al  -  most     done. 

-i 1      r              t 

i — 0            ~ 

— L — 1 1 ^—U , 1 

L — & 3 

(Clown.  Sir  Toby,  there  you  lie. 
Mal.  This  is  much  credit  to  you.) 


&H  *=¥.   4zri  «fc 

~i    •$#        _  4-: 

Nay,  I  will  nev-er  die,   so  long  as 
,  .    F     J r-l FS    ir  1 1 #- 

Vi  r  y ' 

I^^^can        spie. 

S^p. \J^-  "f   *     mW    -- L_ 

fc  :  1   ^r  - 

Sir  Toby. 


Clown. 


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What  an  if  you 


Shall  I  bid  him     go? 


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SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


Clown. 

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not?   Oh    no,  no,  no,  no,    no,   You   dare 


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The  real  poem,  which  Shakespeare  has  here  par- 
odied, ran  as  follows : 

"  Farewell,  dear  Love,  since  thou  wilt  needs  be  gone, 
Mine  eyes  do  shew,  my  life  is  almost  done. 
Nay,  I  will  never  die,  so  long  as  I  can  spie 
There  be  many  mo,  though  that  she  doe  goe, 
There  be  many  mo,  I  fear  not : 
Why  then  let  her  goe,  I  care  not. 

"  Farewell,  farewell ;  since  this  I  find  is  true, 
I  will  not  spend  more  time  in  wooing  you ; 

But  I  will  seek  elsewhere,  if  I  may  find  love  there. 
Shall  I  bid  her  goe  ?  what  and  if  I  doe  ? 
Shall  I  bid  her  goe  and  spare  not? 
O  no,  no,  no,  I  dare  not. 

"  Ten  thousand  times  farewell ;  —  yet  stay  a  while :  — 
Sweet,  kiss  me  once;  sweet  kisses  time  beguile. 

I  have  no  power  to  move.     How  now  am  I  in  love? 
Wilt  thou  needs  be  gone  ?     Go  then,  all  is  one. 
Wilt  thou  needs  be  gone  ?     Oh,  hie  thee ! 
Nay,  stay,  and  do  no  more  deny  me. 

"  Once  more  adieu,  I  see  loath  to  depart 
Bids  oft  adieu  to  her,  that  holds  my  heart 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  219 

But  seeing  I  must  lose  thy  love,  which  I  did  choose, 
Goe  thy  way  for  me,  since  that  may  not  be. 

Goe  thy  ways  for  me.     But  whither? 

Goe,  oh,  but  where  I  may  come  thither. 

"  What  shall  I  doe  ?  my  love  is  now  departed. 
She  is  as  fair,  as  she  is  cruel-hearted. 

She  would  not  be  intreated,  with  prayers  oft  repeated ; 
If  she  come  no  more,  shall  I  die  therefore  ? 
If  she  come  no  more,  what  care  I  ? 
Faith,  let  her  goe,  or  come,  or  tarry." 

There  is  another  instance  of  the  interweaving  of 
part  of  a  song  through  the  action,  in  this  same  play 
of  "Twelfth  Night."  It  occurs  in  the  second  scene 
of  the  fourth  act,  where  the  following  dialogue,  partly 
sung,  is  found : 

"  Clown.     Hey  Robin,  jolly  Robin,  [Singing. 

Tell  me  how  thy  lady  does. 
Malvolio.     Fool 

Clown.     My  lady  is  unkind,  perdy. 
Malvolio.     Fool  — 
Clown.     Alas  !  why  is  she  so  ? 
Malvolio.     Fool,  I  say  — 
Clown.     She  loves  another.     Who  calls,  ha  ?  " 

Doctor  Farmer  has  conjectured  that  the  song 
should    begin    thus : 

"  Hey,  jolly  Robin,  tell  to  me 
How  does  thy  lady  do  ? 
My  lady^s  unkind,  perdy, 
Alas !  why  is  she  so  ?  ■ 


220  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

But  Percy  ("Reliques,"  Book  II.,  No.  4)  gives  the  old 
song  from  which  the  quotations  are  taken.  It  was 
probably  written  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  The 
words  run : 

"  A  Robyn, 

Jolly  Robyn, 
Tell  me  how  thy  leman  doeth, 
And  thou  shalt  knowe  of  myn. 

u  My  lady  is  unkynde,  perde. 
Alack !  why  is  she  so  ? 
She  loveth  an  other  better  than  me; 
And  yet  she  will  say  no. 

"  I  fynde  no  such  doublenes ; 
I  fynde  women  true ; 
My  lady  loveth  me  dowtles, 
And  will  change  for  no  newe. 

"Thou  art  happy  while  that  doeth  last: 
But  I  say,  as  I  fynde, 
That  women's  love  is  but  a  blast, 
And  torneth  with  the  wynde. 

"  Suche  folkes  can  take  no  harme  by  love, 
That  can  abide  their  torn. 
But  I  alas  can  no  way  prove 
In  love,  but  lake  and  morne. 

"  But  if  thou  wilt  avoyde  thy  harme, 
Lerne  this  lessen  of  me : 
At  others  fieres  thy  selfe  to  warme, 
And  let  them  warme  with  the." 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


221 


A  favourite  catch,  with  a  refrain,  may  be  added  to 
all  these  fragments  of  musical  allusion.  It  is  spoken 
of  in  "  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  "  (Act  iv.  Sc.  i)  as 
follows : 

"  Curtis.     Therefore,  good  Grumio,  the  news  ? 
Grumio.   Why  *  Jack,  boy !  ho  boy ! '  and  as  much  news  as 
thou  wilt." 

This  is  a  direct  quotation  from  an  old  catch  which 
we  here  append  : 

CATCH.     "JACK,  BOY,  HO!  BOY!" 


m 


Beat 


•& — z± 


Jack,  boy,  ho!  boy,  news  ;     The  cat    is      in    the  well, 


t=t 


a 


e=» 


W  ''   '   ! 


"Z?" 


Let  us  ring  now  for  her  knell, Ding,dong, ding, dong, bell. 

The  "dildos  and  fadings,"  which  the  servant 
speaks  of  in  "  Winter's  Tale  n  '  (Act  iv.  Sc.  3),  were 
also  refrains  to  songs,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  fol- 
lowing refrain  to  Ophelia's  "How  Should  I  Your 
True  Love  Know  : " 


i 


^ 


i^ 


*■ 


Twang   -  lang 


dil 


do 


dee. 


Ite 


I 


1  See  also  Chapter  XI. 


222  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC, 

Another  burden  which  is  alluded  to  in  "The 
Taming  of  the  Shrew "  is  found  in  Petruchio's  re- 
mark to  Katherine  (Act  ii.  Sc.  i),  — "  We  will  be 
married  o'  Sunday."  This  phrase  may  be  a  mere 
coincidence,  or  it  may  have  been  taken  from  an  old 
song  which  ran  — 

"  To  church  away ! 
We  will  have  rings 
And  fine  array, 

With  other  things, 
Against  the  day, 
For  I'm  to  be  married  o'  Sunday." 

Richard  Grant  White  quotes  the  above  song,  but 
as  he  gives  no  source  of  derivation,  and  as  he  often 
follows  fanciful  theories,  we  give  the  citation  for 
what  it   is  worth. 

Hunting-music  is  found  in  some  of  Shakespeare's 
plays,  and  a  hunt's-up  was  often  used  as  a  bright 
song  with  which  to  awaken  favoured  individuals  in 
the  early  morning.  One  of  the  best  of  these  songs 
is  found  in  "  As  You  Like  It "  (Act  iv.  Sc.  2). 

"  Enter  Jaques  and  Lords,  in  the  habit  of  Foresters, 

Jaques.     Which  is  he  that  killed  the  deer  ? 

First  Lord.     Sir,  it  was  I. 

Jaques.  Let's  present  him  to  the  duke,  like  a  Roman 
conqueror ;  and  it  would  do  well  to  set  the  deer's  horns  upon 
his  head,  for  a  branch  of  victory.  —  Have  you  no  song, 
forester,  for  this  purpose? 

Second  Lord.     Yes,  sir. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  223 

Jaques.  Sing  it;  'tis  no  matter  how  it  be  in  tune,  so  it 
make  noise  enough. 

SONG. 

1.  What  shall  he  have  that  kilPd  the  deer? 

2.  His  leather  skins  and  horns  to  wear. 

I.  Then  sing  him  home: 

\The  rest  shall  bear  this  burden. 
Take  thou  no  scorn,  to  wear  the  horn ; 
It  was  a  crest,  ere  thou  wast  born. 

1 .  Thy  father's  father  wore  it ; 

2.  And  thy  father  bore  it : 
[AIL]    The  horn,  the  horn,  the  lusty  horn, 

Is  not  a  thing  to  laugh  to  scorn." 

In  this  scene  the  words,  "  The  rest  shall  bear  this 
burden,"  have  caused  some  trouble  to  the  commen- 
tators, for,  by  an  odd  mistake,  they  have  been  inter- 
polated into  the  body  of  the  song,  whereas  they  are 
almost  of  a  certainty  a  mere  direction  to  the  singers 
to  join  in  the  "  burden "  of  the  song.  Some  com- 
mentators, Knight  and  White,  for  example,  would 
have  the  line,  "Then  sing  him  home,"  also  read 
as  a  mere  stage-direction,  but  this  is  at  least  deba- 
table ground.1  We  give  the  music  of  this  song,  or 
"  catch,"  as  it  was  probably  heard  on  Shakespeare's 
stage.  It  is  reprinted  from  Playford's  "  Musical  Com- 
panion "  (1672),  but  Playford  had  copied  it  from 
Hilton's  earlier  works,  as  he  states  in  his  preface. 
Another  debatable  case  occurs  in  "  The  Merchant  of 
Venice  "  (Act  iii.  Sc.  2) : 

1  See  Furness  for  a  full  debate  as  to  the  matter  of  the  burden. 


224 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


11111 


Mi 

i 


lUi!     *  4 


S      f-{ ,  |  ;     ^ 


I 


nr 


.  (4*  4 

■  41 

JET 

it 


t*tt 


o 

g 

P 


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111 


J  J! 

♦I 
III 

III 


■5 


j  3 

P?  i  (jrm  - 
m 


ill 
II 

:     I  II 
II! 


+] 


2 


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2 


o 

i 


j 


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J      I 


v  a 

^     > 

*  g 
?  I 


.jo 

c 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  225 

**  Music  whilst  Bassanio  comments  on  the  caskets  to  himself. 

SONG.x 

1.  Tell  me,  where  is  fancy  bred, 

Or  in  the  heart,  or  in  the  head  ? 
How  begot,  how  nourished  ? 
Reply,  reply. 

2.  It  is  engender'd  in  the  eyes, 

With  gazing  fed  ;  and  fancy  dies 
In  the  cradle  where  it  lies : 

Let  us  all  ring  fancy's  knell ; 

I'll  begin  it —  Ding,  dong,  belL 
All.  Ding,  dong,  bell." 

Johnson,  most  unmusical  of  commentators  (a  man 
who  ought  never  to  have  edited  Shakespeare),  held 
that  the  words,  "  Replie,  Replie,"  were  merely  a 
stage-direction  that  a  second  voice  should  reply  to 
the  first.  The  repetition  of  the  word  makes  this 
position  very  untenable ;  yet  many  editions  have 
since  appeared  in  which  the  word  is  merely  attached 
as  a  heading  to  the  second  stanza,  or  omitted  alto- 
gether. 

Serenades  formed  a  very  popular  branch  of  music 
in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  and 
Shakespeare  speaks  of  them  with  some  frequency. 
There  is  a  sentence  in  the  Second  Part  of  "Henry 
IV."  (Act  iii.  Sc.  2),  in  which  Falstaff  derides 
Shallow,  saying : 

% 
*  The  original  melody  used  here  has  not  been  discovered. 


226 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


"  He  came  ever  in  the  rearward  of  the  fashion,  and  sung 
those  tunes  .  .  .  that  he  heard  the  carmen  whistle,  and  sware 
they  were  his  fancies,  or  his  Good-nights." 

The  "  fancies "  spoken  of  here  were  probably 
fantasies  or  improvisations,  while  the  "  Good-nights  " 
were  serenades.  In  a  preceding  chapter  we  have 
seen  Thurio  serenading  Sylvia  ("Two  Gentlemen  of 
Verona,"  Act  iv.  Sc.  2)  with  "a  deploring  dump," 
which  was  quite  in  the  character  of  evening  music. 
But  there  was  also  another  species  of  ambulatory 
love-song,  which  has  been  miscalled  a  serenade ;  we 
mean  the  bright  and  joyous  song  with  which  the 
olden-time  lover  awoke  his  mistress.     This  morning- 


A  "HUNTS-UP,"  OR  MORNING  SONG 

(17th  Century.) 

Vivace.    1  >-.  | 


r? 


mi 


sees; 


r=$ 


— 0- 


m 


The    Hunt     is 


Ifr^iS: 


up, 


the     Hunt 
P — 


is      up,     And 
— ft 

I    it     * 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  227 


If— t — I  r  ■  g  t — rr — ^-"r^^11 


bed  with   his  Wife,  'Tis  time    to  get  him  a  -  way. 


song,  called  "aubade"  by  the  French  composers 
and  "alba"  by  the  ancient  troubadours,  was  ex- 
actly the  opposite  of  the  pensive  and  soothing  ser- 
enade. Fynes  Moryson,  in  his  "  Itinerary  "  published 
in  161 7,  says  that  it  was  a  custom  peculiar  to  Eng- 
land, that  if  a  gentleman  had  company  at  a  highway 
inn,  he  would  be  offered  music  (which  he  might 
freely  take  or  refuse),  and,  if  solitary,  the  musicians 
would  give  him  the  good-day  with  music  in  the 
morning.1  It  is  such  a  morning-song  that  Clot  en 
brings  to  Imogen  in  the  third  scene  of  the  second 
act  of  "Cymbeline."  The  song  is,  as  usual,  set  in 
a  framework  of  comment. 

"  Cloten.     It's  almost  morning,  is't  not? 

First  Lord.     Day,  my  lord. 

Cloten.  I  would  this  music  would  come :  I  am  advised  to 
give  her  music  o'  mornings ;  they  say,  it  will  penetrate.  — 

'Enter  Musicians. 

Come,  on  ;  tune :  .  .  .  First  a  very  excellent  good-conceited 
thing ;  after  a  wonderful  sweet  air,  with  admirable  rich  words 
to  it,  and  then  let  her  consider. 

\ 
1  Quoted  by  Chappell,  "  Old  English  Ditties." 


228  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

SONG. 

*  Hark!  hark!  the  lark  at  heaven's  gate  sings. 
And  Phoebus  'gins  arise, 
His  steeds  to  water  at  those  springs 

On  chaliced  flowers  that  lies ; 
And  winking  Mary-buds  begin 
To  ope  their  golden  eyes ; 
With  every  thing  that  pretty  bin :  * 
My  lady  sweet,  arise  ; 
Arise,  arise.' 

So,  get  you  gone  :  if  this  penetrate,  I  will  consider  your  music 
the  better :  if  it  do  not,  it  is  a  vice  in  her  ears,  which  horse- 
hairs, and  cat-guts,  nor  the  voice  of  unpaved  eunuch  to  boot, 
can  never  amend.  [Exeunt  Musicians.'*1 

The  original  musical  setting  of  this  poem  is  lost, 
but  it  has  received  a  setting  worthy  of  Shakespeare 
by  one  of  the  greatest  of  German  masters,  —  Schu- 
bert. Of  this  musical  setting  and  of  the  circum- 
stances of  its  production,  we  shall  speak  in  a  later 
chapter. 

1  Much  controversy  has  arisen  about  the  word  "  lies,"  in  this 
connection.  The  use  of  this  instead  of  its  nominative  was  com- 
mon enough  in  Shakespeare's  time.  The  word  "  bin,"  substituted 
for  "  is  "  by  Hanmer,  has  also  caused  comment  both  favourable  and 
otherwise.  Shakespeare  unquestionably  wrote  "  is,"  and  the  forced 
rhyme,  old-fashioned  term,  and  grammatic  license  seem  unneces- 
sary, yet  "  bin  "  will  probably  be  used  in  many  editions  in  sacula 
scBculorum. 


CHAPTER  XL 

The  Ballads  of  Shakespeare  —  Antiquity  of  English  Ballads  — 
Antique  Examples  —  Ophelia's  Ballads  —  The  Pathology  of  the 
Mad-scene  —  Edgar's  Music  in  "  King  Lear  "  —  Mad-songs  in 
This  Epoch  —  Autolycus  and  His  Ballads  in  "  Winter's  Tale"  — 
Plots  of  Shakespearian  Plays  as  Found  in  Ballads  — "  Green- 
sleeves,"  as  Cited  by  Shakespeare. 

The  ballad  is  the  peculiar  artistic  heritage  of  the 
Northern  nations.  Wherever  the  theatre  was  well 
developed  the  ballad  languished,  for  it  had  no  mis- 
sion to  perform  in  national  literature  which  could 
not  be  as  adequately,  or  even  more  thoroughly,  ac- 
complished by  means  of  the  drama.  Even  ancient 
Greece,  with  all  its  literary  and  musical  activity, 
possessed  no  ballads,  the  epos  being  the  nearest 
approach  to  this  form.  In  later  days,  Italy  and 
France  cared  little  for  this  vein  of  musical  narra- 
tive, while  Germany,  Scandinavia,  and  England  pre- 
sented the  deeds  of  national  heroes  to  the  public 
which  craved  the  recital,  in  the  shape  of  ballad  or 
saga. 

If  the  terms  are  used  strictly,  there  should  be  a 
strong  discrimination  between  "ballad"  and  "song," 
for  the  ballad  was  a  tale  of  events,  set  to  music, 

229 


230  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC, 

while  the  song  dealt  with  emotions  only.  Of  course, 
there  are  many  instances  where  the  one  form  goes 
into  the  domain  of  the  other,  temporarily.  The  old 
English  chroniclers  were  often  glad  to  incorporate 
the  legendary  information  received  through  a  ballad, 
into  their  histories.  The  "Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle" 
contains  at  least  two  complete  historical  ballads,  and 
fragments  of  nearly  a  dozen  more  are  incorporated 
into  the  body  of  the  work,  and  William  of  Malmes- 
bury  frankly  acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to  the 
traditional  ballads  of  the  countryside,  in  his  history 
of  King  Edward  (the  son  of  Alfred  the  Great),  a 
confession  which  many  of  his  brother  chroniclers 
would  have  been  obliged  to  make,  had  they  been 
as  honest  as  he. 

A  royal  ballad  was  composed  as  early  as  1017,  when 
King  Canute  burst  into  song,  upon  the  river  Ely,  upon 
a  summer  evening.  The  pious  chronicler  of  Ely  gives 
the  words  of  the  first  stanza  of  this  ballad,  but  the 
music  has  disappeared.  The  English  bears  the  mark 
of  the  twelfth,  rather  than  of  the  eleventh  century. 

"  Merie  sungen  the  muneches  binnen  Ely, 
Tha  Cnut  ching  reu  ther  by : 
Roweth,  cnites,  noer  the  land, 
And  here  we  thes  muneches  saeng. 

"  Merry  sang  the  monks  by  Ely, 
As  Canute,  King,  rowed  thereby. 
Row  knights,  near  the  land, 
And  hear  we  these  monks  sing." 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  23 1 

We  present  a  facsimile  of  one  of  the  black-letter 
ballads  of  the  fifteenth  century,  from  a  manuscript  in 
the  Sloane  collection  in  the  British  Museum.  Mr. 
Thos.  Wright  has  added  to  it  a  short  glossary, 
which  is  also  appended.  The  reader  will  note  an 
allusion  to  the  "division"  of  melody  as  explained 
in  Chapter  VI. 

XX 

VH&tve.  so  Kgrf*.  femes'*  ssnggt  merte,  bull)  alesson. 

30  3f  toent  on  50!  nap 

in  otore  ptofeugon , 
Knotti  %  jolp  3lankgn 

be&i0merpton/ 
3lanfcpn  be^gan  t&e  offk0 

on  t&e  50I  Hap 
ann  fpt  me  tbgnfcpt  it  500  me  goou 

(b  merie  gan  be  Cap  / 

feprielegfon. 
3lanfepn  ten  t&e  ppflpl 

ful  fapre  anu  nil  toel  / 
ano  5pt  me  tjnnfept  it  000  me  goon  / 

a0  euere  imue  31  Cel. 


232  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


Slanfcpn  at  t&e  tanctus 

etafcitamertenote/ 
8no  5pt  me  t&initgtit  000  me  goon/ 

3f  papio  for  Bis  cote, 
3ian&i?n  crafcit  nots  / 

animnoeriuonafenot/ 
ann  3?t  fje  frafefept  &em  fmaflete 

tfmn  toottiss  to  tfje  pot. 

ft. 
3ianl#n  at  t&e  angnus 

oerpt  tfte  par  fcreoe  / 
&e  ttopn&elio  /  out  fapa  notot 

arm  on  tmm  fot  fie  treoe. 

lBeneoicamus  uommo  / 

Crpa  fro  fc&ame  me  fcogloe  / 
Deo  0tacta0  tf>er*to  / 

ala0  31  go  feriti)  felloe. 

6. 


Gloss.  £yr*V  aleyson  (icvpie  ekeiaov)  '  Lord,  have  mercy  on  us,'  a 
part  of  the  liturgy  —  zol,  yule,  Christmas — ton,  tone  —  offys,  office, 
service  — zyt,  yet  —  red,  read  — pystyl,  epistle  — sel,  bliss,  happiness 
—  crakit,  cracked  —  hakkyt,  hacked  —  worts,  herbs  —  beryt,  bore  — 
nowt,  nought,  nothing  —  trede,  trode  —  schylde,  shield  —  schylde, 
child. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  233 

Many  of  the  ballads  which  are  well-known  in  Eng- 
land to-day  have  an  antiquity  scarcely  inferior  to  the 
one  cited  above.  "  For  He's  a  Jolly  Good  Fellow," 
for  example  (known  in  America  as  "  We  Won't  Go 
Home  Till  Morning"),  can  be  traced  through  the 
the  French  "  Malbrooke  "  to  the  old  crusader  "  Mam- 
bron,"  and  its  melody  was  heard  in  Palestine  in  the 
twelfth  century.  Oddly  enough,  the  tune  took  root 
in  the  East,  and  can  be  heard  to-day  in  many  an 
Oriental  city.  The  fellaheen  of  Egypt  claim  the 
tune  as  their  own,  and  so  it  is,  if  eight  centuries  of 
possession  can  make  it  so.  "There  Were  Three 
Crows  Sat  on  a  Tree,"  "  Lord  Lovell,"  and  several 
other  popular  ballads  of  the  day  can  also  be  traced, 
in  varying  shapes,  to  a  remote  past. 

It  is  natural,  therefore,  to  find  the  ballad  playing 
a  prominent  part,  in  many  ways,  in  the  Shakespearian 
drama.  If  the  ballad  appears  in  the  action  less  fre- 
quently than  the  lyrical  song,  it  is  none  the  less  used, 
at  times,  with  peculiar  fitness  and  occasionally  with 
a  power  that  is  phenomenal.  To  this  last  category 
belong  the  ballads  that  Ophelia  sings  during  her  fits 
of  madness.  Nothing  can  be  more  pathetic  than  the 
introduction  of  light  and  inconsequential  ballad  music 
in  these  moments  of  darkness  and  agony.  Just  as  a 
single  candle  might  throw  into  more  terrible  contrast 
the  blackness  of  some  vast  cavern,  just  as  the  mirth 
and  revelry  expressed  in  the  "  £a  Ira  "  and  the  "  Car- 


234  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

magnole"  made  more  frightful  the  scenes  in  the 
French  Reign  of  Terror,  which  they  accompanied, 
so  the  woes  of  Ophelia  are  emphasised  and  doubly 
impressed  upon  the  auditor  by  the  ribald  music  that 
she  sings. 

Fortunately,  in  this  case  we  have  the  very  music 
which  Shakespeare  employed.  When  Drury  Lane 
Theatre  was  burned,  in  1812,  the  old  transcription 
of  the  melodies,  which  had  been  handed  down  from 
the  original  sources,  was  lost ;  an  enthusiastic  musi- 
cian, however,  to  whom  all  Shakespearians  owe 
thanks,  Doctor  Arnold,  sought  out  Mrs.  Jordan, 
who  had  often  played  the  part  of  Ophelia,  and 
from  her  lips  transcribed  the  tunes  that  she  had  so 
frequently  sung.  Mr.  Linley  also  wrote  down  the 
melodies  from  memory,  having  heard  Miss  Field 
(afterward  Mrs.  Forster)  sing  the  tunes  in  the 
above  mentioned  theatre.  The  two  versions  agree 
well  enough  for  one  to  prove  the  other,  but  the 
Arnold  transcription  (which  we  reproduce  for  our 
readers)  is  probably  the  more  authentic.  The 
scenes  in  which  the  ballads  occur  are  as  follows  : 

"  Re-enter  Horatio  with  Ophelia. 

Ophelia.     Where  is  the  beauteous  majesty  of  Denmark  ? 
Queen.     How  now,  Ophelia  ? 
Ophelia.  '  How  should  I  your  true  love  know 
From  another  one  ? 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  235 

By  his  cockle  hat  and  staff, 

And  his  sandal  shoon  ?  '  [Singing. 

Queen.     Alas,  sweet  lady,  what  imports  this  song  ? 
Ophelia.     Say  you  ?  nay,  pray  you,  mark. 

« He  is  dead  and  gone,  lady,  [Sings. 

He  is  dead  and  gone ; 
At  his  head  a  green-grass  turf, 
At  his  heels  a  stone.' 
O,  ho. 

Queen.     Nay,  but  Ophelia  — 
Ophelia.     Pray  you,  mark. 

1  White  his  shroud  as  the  mountain  snow.'        [Sings. 


Enter  King. 

Queen.     Alas,  look  here,  my  lord. 
Ophelia.        ■  Larded  all  with  sweet  flowers, 

Which  bewept  to  the  grave  did  go,1 
With  true-love  showers.' 

King.     How  do  you,  pretty  lady  ? 

Ophelia.  Well,  God  'ield  you !  They  say  the  owl  was  a 
baker's  daughter.  Lord,  we  know  what  we  are,  but  know  not 
what  we  may  be.     God  be  at  your  table. 

King.     Conceit  upon  her  father. 

Ophelia.  Pray,  let  us  have  no  words  of  this  ;  but  when 
they  ask  what  it  means  say  you  this : 

<Good  morrow,  'tis  Saint  Valentine's  day, 
All  in  the  morning  betime, 
And  I  a  maid  at  your  window, 
To  be  your  Valentine  : " 

'Knight,  Pope,  Stevens,  and  others  give  this  "did  not  go," 
arguing  that  Polonius  was  not  a  youth,  hence  no  true-love  showers. 


236 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC, 


Regarding  the  "  cockle  hat  and  staff,"  Warburton 
says  (Vol.  VIII.  p.  224)  that  these  are  the  distinguish- 
ing marks  of  a  pilgrim.  The  chief  places  of  devotion 
being  beyond  sea,  the  pilgrims  were  wont  to  put 
cockle-shells  in  their  hats  to  denote  the  intention  or 
performance  of  their  devotion.  The  allusion  to  the 
owl  and  the  baker's  daughter  is  explained  by  an  old 
ballad  (of  which  we  have,  however,  never  seen  a 
copy),  in  which  the  tale  is  told  of  the  Saviour  going 
to  a  baker's  shop  and  asking  bread ;  he  was  given  a 


Andante. 


■+-* 


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And  how  should  I  your  true  love  know, From  many  another 


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by  his    San-dal  Shoon.         Twang,  lang,  dil  -  do,    dee. 


acr 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


237 


Gaily. 


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38 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


come     a  -   gain?       No 


no,  he   is  dead.     Gone 


W~F 


¥  *  lurry  fA.  * 


"QJ 


to  his  Deathbed,  And  he  nev-er  will  come    a  -   gain. 


llll 


large  lump  of  dough  by  the  baker,  but  the  daughter, 
thinking  the  portion  too  large,  took  away  half.  When 
the  portion  of  Christ  was  put  in  the  oven  it  began  to 
swell  larger  and  larger,  while  the  baker's  daughter 
began  to  hoot  and  cry  and  was  turned  into  an  owl. 
The  song  about  St.  Valentine's  Day  is  commented 
upon  by  Halliwell  thus  : 

"This  song  alludes  to  the  custom  of  the  first  girl  seen  by  a 
man  on  the  morning  of  this  day  being  considered  his  Valen- 
tine, or  True-love." 

The  custom  is  of  great  antiquity  in  England,  but 
probably  did  not  have  its  origin  there ;  indeed  it  can 
be  traced  back  to  the  Roman  Lupercalia,  and  prob- 
ably arose  from  the  ancient  idea  that  birds  chose 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  239 

their  mates  on  February  14th,  St.  Valentine's  Day. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  life  of  the  saint  that  would 
seem  to  make  him  sponsor  for  the  amatory  character 
of  the  festivities. 

The  later  part  of  the  scene  (the  fifth  of  the  fourth 
act)  soon  follows : 

"Enter  Ophelia,  fantastically  dressed  with  straws  and 
flowers. 

Laertes.    O  heat,  dry  up  my  brains  !  tears,  seven  times  salt, 
Burn  out  the  sense  and  virtue  of  mine  eye !  — 
By  Heaven,  thy  madness  shall  be  paid  with  weight, 
Till  our  scale  turn  the  beam.     O  rose  of  May ! 
Dear  maid,  kind  sister,  sweet  Ophelia  !  — 
O  Heavens !  is't  possible,  a  young  maid's  wits 
Should  be  as  mortal  as  an  old  man's  life  ? 
Nature  is  fine  in  love :  and,  where  'tis  fine, 
It  sends  some  precious  instance  of  itself 
After  the  thing  it  loves. 

Ophelia.    *  They  bore  him  barefaced  on  the  bier ; 
Hey  no  nonny,  nonny  hey  nonny : 
And  in  his  grave  rain'd  many  a  tear ; '  — 
Fare  you  well,  my  dove  ! 

Laertes.  Hadst  thou  thy  wits,  and  didst  persuade  revenge, 
It  could  not  move  thus. 

Ophelia.  You  must  sing,  '  Down  a-down,  an  you  call  him 
a-down-a.'  O,  how  the  wheel  becomes  it !  It  is  the  false 
steward,  that  stole  his  master's  daughter. 

Laertes.     This  nothing's  more  than  matter. 

Ophelia.  There's  rosemary,  that's  for  remembrance ;  pray 
you,  love,  remember;  and  there  is  pansies,  that's  for  thoughts. 

Laertes.  A  document  in  madness ;  thoughts  and  remem- 
brance fitted. 


240  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

Ophelia.  There's  fennel  for  you,  and  columbines :  —  there's 
rue  for  you ;  and  here's  some  for  me :  —  we  may  call  it,  herb 
of  grace  o'  Sundays:  —  you  may  wear  your  rue  with  a  differ- 
ence. —  There's  a  daisy :  —  I  would  give  you  some  violets ; 
but  they  withered  all,  when  my  father  died :  —  They  say,  he 
made  a  good  end,  — 

1  For  bonny  sweet  Robin  is  all  my  joy.'  [Sings. 

Laertes.     Thought  and  affliction,  passion,  hell  itself, 

She  turns  to  favour,  and  to  prettiness. 
Ophelia.    [Sings']   'And  will  he  not  come  again? 
And  will  he  not  come  again  ? 
No,  no,  he  is  dead, 
Go  to  thy  death-bed, 
He  never  will  come  again. 
His  beard  was  as  white  as  snow, 
All  flaxen  was  his  poll : 
He  is  gone,  he  is  gone, 
And  we  cast  away  moan ; 
God  'a  mercy  on  his  soul ! ' 
And  of  all  Christian  souls  !     I  pray  God.    God  be  wi'  you. 

[Exit  Ophelia. 
Laertes.     Do  you  see  this,  O  God  !  " 

The  reader  will  note  how  the  burdens  follow  each 
other  in  this  scene.  "  Hey  no  nonny,  nonny,  hey 
nonny,"  is  followed  by  "  Down  a  down,  an  you  call 
him  a-down-a,"  which  is  very  similiar  to  what  Mis- 
tress Quickly  sings  in  the  third  scene  of  the  first 
act  of  "The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  and  Ophelia 
praises  the  refrain  with  "  O,  how  the  wheel  becomes 
it,"  meaning  that  the  burden  fits  well  to  its  song, 
and  not,  as  Knight  suggests,  that  it  was  adapted  to 


Ophelia. — {Sings.)  "For  bonny  sweet  Robin  is  all  my  joy" 

(Hamlet,  Act  iv.  Sc.  5.) 
From  the  painting  by  N.  Sichel. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  24 1 

be  sung  by  spinners  at  the  wheel.1  The  ballad  of 
which  this  appears  to  be  the  burden,  i.  e.  the  false 
steward  who  stole  his  master's  daughter,  has  eluded 
attempts  at  identification  thus  far.  The  fragment, 
"  For  bonny  sweet  Robin  is  all  my  joy,"  is  found  in 
the  old  volume  known  as  "Queen  Elizabeth's  Vir- 
ginal Book."  It  seems  to  have  been  very  popular 
in  Shakespeare's  day,  for  Fletcher  alludes  to  the  tune 
as  "  Bonny  Robin,"  in  "  Two  Noble  Kinsmen,"  and 
several  ballads  were  sung  to  its  melody.  We  give 
the  melody  as  it  was  commonly  sung,  with  a  single 
line  of  the  words,  —  all  that  remains  of  the  original 
poetry.  As  it  appears  in  William  Ballet's  Lute-book, 
a  valuable  manuscript  in  the  library  of  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Dublin  (and  older  than  the  Elizabethan  volume 
cited  above),  under  the  title  "Robin  Hood  Is  to 
the  Greenwood  Gone,"  it  is  possible  that  this  was 
one  of  the  many  ballads  made  upon  the  old  English 
popular  hero. 

1  Bishop  Hall's  censure  of  ballads  in  1 597  runs  : 

"  Some  drunken  rhymer  thinks  his  time  well  spent 
If  he  can  live  to  see  his  name  in  print ; 
Who,  when  he  once  is  fleshed  to  the  presse, 
And  sees  his  handsell  have  such  faire  successe, 
Sung  to  the  wheele  and  sung  unto  the  payle, 
He  sends  forth  thraves  of  ballads  to  the  sale." 

In  "Much  Ado  Abo  ur  Nothing  "  (Act  i.  Sc.  1)  Benedick  refers 
contemptuously  to  "  a  ballad-maker's  pen." 


242  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSTC. 

Moderate  Time. 


H-rHr^i 


For    bon-ny  sweet  Robin  is  all       my  joy. 


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In  the  last  ballad,  or  rather  song,  which  Ophelia 
sings,  the  line,  "God  'a  mercy  on  his  soul,"  has 
been  changed  in  some  editions  to  "  Gramercy  on  his 
soul ; "  the  Folio  gives  the  latter,  the  Quartos  the 
former  reading. 

But  there  is  something  far  deeper  to  study,  in  this 
scene,  than  mere  quibbles  about  readings,  or  the 
tracing  of  burdens  to  their  original  context,  or  even 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC,  243 

the  tunes  of  the  ballads  themselves,  beautiful  as  their 
effect  must  have  been  (and  still  is)  upon  the  stage ; 
it  is  the  wonderful  subtlety  with  which  these  snatches 
of  song  illustrate  the  insanity  of  the  unhappy  heroine. 
We  have  already  alluded  to  the  added  power  which 
their  contrast  gives  to  the  pathos  of  the  action,  but 
there  is  a  touch  more  subtile  than  this  in  the  song 
of  Valentine's  Day.  The  second  stanza  of  this  be- 
comes rather  coarse  and  indelicate,  and  is  the  most 
decided  proof  of  the  entire  alienation  of  the  chaste 
Ophelia's  mind.  Physicians  know  that  often  the 
estranged  mind  becomes  the  opposite  of  its  sane  self, 
the  silent  become  garrulous,  the  religious  become 
blasphemous,  and  here  we  have  the  gentle  Ophelia 
becoming  ribald  and  vulgar.  It  has  been  asked,  how- 
ever, how  could  such  a  maiden  have  learned  such 
songs  ?  To  this  we  reply  that  it  was  not  necessary 
that  she  should  have  learned  them ;  it  would  suffice 
that  she  should  have  heard  them,  or  even  once  have 
been  shocked  by  them.  The  author  was  recently 
told  of  the  case  of  an  insane  servant  girl  (by  Dr. 
Charles  R.  Walker,  of  Concord,  Mass.)  who,  in  her 
delirium,  spoke  entire  Latin  sentences.  She  had 
been  in  the  family  of  a  scholar  who  sometimes  read 
Virgil  aloud  to  his  wife  and  daughter,  and  had 
caught  the  sound  of  the  verses  unconsciously. 

It   is  interesting  ^o  compare  the  songs  of  Edgar, 
simulating   madness,   in    "King    Lear,"   with   these 


244  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

jangling  fragments  of  prettiness ;  here,  too,  we  find 
broken  bits  of  tunes  and  inconsequential  sentences. 

"  Pillicock  sat  on  Pillicock-hill, 
Halloo,  halloo,  loo,  loo." 

"  Saint  Withold  footed  thrice  the  wold  ; 
He  met  the  night-mare,  and  her  nine-fold ; 
Bid  her  alight 
And  her  troth  plight, 
And  aroint  thee,  witch,  aroint  thee." 

"  But  mice,  and  rats,  and  such  small  deer, 
Have  been  Tom's  food  for  seven  long  year." 

These  are  parts  of  the  ravings  of  the  pseudo-lunatic, 
and  Staunton  rightly  conjectures  that  they  should  be 
sung  rather  than  recited,  the  latter  being  the  case 
with  most  representations  of  the  character.  All  of 
the  citations  given  above,  and  the  other  similar 
fragments,  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  quote,  are 
fragments  of  musical  ballads  and  songs,  sometimes 
of  nursery  rhymes  which  had  a  dozen  varying  tunes 
at  the  caprice  of  the  singer. 

The  mad-scenes  in  "  King  Lear  "  are  not  compar- 
able with  the  subtle  ones  in  "  Hamlet,"  save  in  the 
one  point  that  in  both  plays  agony  is  emphasised  by 
a  frivolous  background.  The  melodies  attached  to 
Edgar  s  songs  are  unfortunately  not  preserved  to  us, 
but  it  may  be  interesting,  in  this  connection,  to  state 
that  England  was  particularly  fond  of  "  mad-songs  " 
(see  Hawkins's  "History  of  Music,"  Vol.  II.  p.  825), 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


and  Tom  o'  Bedlam  was  a  regular  character  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  madman  upon  the  stage 
was  regarded  as  a  sort  of  clown,  of  a  particularly- 
spicy  character ;  the  audience  generally  laughed 
heartily  at  the  mad-scenes,  and  one  is  not  astonished 
to  find  the  fool,  in  "King  Lear,"  capping  Edgar's 
verse  (Act  iii.  Sc.  6). 

"  Edgar.     Come  o'er  the  bourn,  Bessie,  to  me : 
Fool.  Her  boat  hath  a  leak, 

And  she  must  not  speak 
Why  she  dares  not  come  over  to  thee." 

The  song,  *  Come  O'er  the  Bourn,  Bessie,"  was 
entered  at  Stationer's  Hall,  in  1562. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  Shakespeare  in  the  mad- 
scenes  made  a  concession  to  the  popular  taste  of  his 
time.  This  would  place  the  Ophelia  songs  on  a 
lower  level  than  that  which  is  generally  assigned 
them,  and  would  also  deteriorate  the  effect  of  the 
scenes  in  "  King  Lear,"  just  alluded  to.  Inferential 
evidence  that  this  may  have  been  the  case  may  be 
found  in  Fletcher's  "  Two  Noble  Kinsmen  "  (Act  iv. 
Sc.  3),  where  the  gaoler's  daughter  appears  in  a  dis- 
traught condition,  and  gives  fragments  of  songs  quite 
in  the  Ophelian  manner,  and  also  becomes  highly 
indelicate  in  her  language.  The  rustic  revellers  and 
the  schoolmaster,  in  this  scene,  think  it  great  sport 
to  find  a  madwoman  to  join  in  their  morris-dance, 


246  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

and  the  whole  scene  was  evidently  intended  to  pro, 
voke  the  mirth  of  the  audience. 

We  may  suppose,  however,  that  Shakespeare  made 
use  of  the  fondness  of  his  public  for  a  mad-scene, 
and  turned  the  hilarity  into  a  more  worthy  channel. 
Fletcher's  gaoler's  daughter  certainly  seems  but  a 
vulgar  caricature  of  Ophelia. 

We  can  turn  from  the  fragmentary  musical  mutter- 
ings  of  Edgar,  with  much  delight,  to  the  rollicking 
picture  of  ballad-singing  given  in  connection  with 
Autolycus,  in  "  Winter's  Tale."  Here  we  have  a 
minstrel  such  as  England  possessed  regiments  of  in 
the  ancient  times ;  such  as  were  persecuted  by 
law,  hounded  by  the  Church  (see  Chapter  IX.),  yet 
remained  to  the  end  a  set  of  jolly,  Bohemian  repro- 
bates. The  scenes  in  which  Autolycus  is  prominent 
are  here  given  (Act  iv.  Sc.  2) : 

"  A  Road  near  the  Shepherd's  Cottage, 
Enter  Autolycus,  singing. 

*  When  daffodils  begin  to  peer,  — 

With,  heigh  !  the  doxy  over  the  dale, — 
Why,  then  comes  in  the  sweet  o'  the  year; 
For  the  red  blood  reigns  in  the  winter's  pale. 

*  The  white  sheet  bleaching  on  the  hedge,  — 

With,  heigh  !  the  sweet  birds,  O,  how  they  sing!  — 
Doth  set  my  pugging  tooth  on  edge ; 
For  a  quart  of  ale  is  a  dish  for  a  king. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  2tf 

1  The  lark,  that  tirra-lirra  chants,  — 

With,  hey!  with,  hey!  the  thrush  and  the  jay, — 
Are  summer  songs  for  me  and  my  aunts, 
While  we  lie  tumbling  in  the  hay.' 

I  have  served  prince  Florizel,  and,  in  my  time,  wore  three- 
pile  ;  but  now  I  am  out  of  service ; 

*  But  shall  I  go  mourn  for  that,  my  dear? 

The  pale  moon  shines  by  night ; 
And,  when  I  wander  here  and  there, 
I  then  do  most  go  right. 

*  If  tinkers  may  have  leave  to  live, 

And  bear  the  sow-skin  budget ; 
Then  my  account  I  well  may  give, 
And  in  the  stocks  avouch  it.' 

My  traffic  is  sheets ;  when  the  kite  builds,  look  to  lesser 
linen.  My  father  named  me  Autolycus;  who  being,  as 
I  am,  littered  under  Mercury,  was  likewise  a  snapper-up  of 
unconsidered  trifles.  With  die  and  drab,  I  purchased  this 
caparison ;  and  my  revenue  is  the  silly  cheat :  Gallows  and 
knocks  are  too  powerful  on  the  highway;  beating  and  hanging 
are  terrors  to  me ;  for  the  life  to  come,  I  sleep  out  the  thought 
of  it.  —  A  prize !  a  prize  ! " 

After  this  delightful  lyric  (the  music  of  which  has 
unfortunately  disappeared)  the  clown  enters  and  is 
cheerfully  robbed  by  Autolycus,  who  departs  at  the 
end  of  the  scene,  singing  : 

"  J°g  on»  j°g  on»  the  footpath  way, 
Anckmerrily  hent  the  stile-a; 
A  merry  heart  goes  all  the  day, 
Your  sad  tires  in  a  mile-a." 


248 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


and  of  this  an  old  melody  still  exists ;  we  herewith 
append  it.  The  tune  is  traced  as  far  back  as  1650, 
and  probably  is  the  one  known  to  Shakespeare  nearly 
a  half-century  before.  The  next  scene  of  the  play 
introduces  Autolycus  again. 


Moderate  Time. 


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is 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  249 

"  Enter  a  Servant. 

Servant.  O  master,  if  you  did  but  hear  the  pedler  at  the 
door,  you  would  never  dance  again  after  a  tabor  and  pipe ;  no, 
the  bagpipe  could  not  move  you :  he  sings  several  tunes  faster 
than  you'll  tell  money;  he  utters  them  as  he  had  eaten  ballads, 
and  all  men's  ears  grew  to  his  tunes. 

Clown.  He  could  never  come  better;  he  shall  come  in:  I 
love  a  ballad  but  even  too  well;  if  it  be  doleful  matter, 
merrily  set  down,  or  a  very  pleasant  thing  indeed,  and  sung 
lamentably. 

Servant.  He  hath  songs,  for  man  or  woman,  of  all  sizes ; 
no  milliner  can  so  fit  his  customers  with  gloves :  he  has  the 
prettiest  love-songs  for  maids;  so  without  bawdry,  which  is 
strange;  with  such  delicate  burdens  of  ■ dildos  and  fadings,' 
4  jump  her  and  thump  her ; '  and  where  some  stretch-mouthed 
rascal  would,  as  it  were,  mean  mischief,  and  break  a  foul  jape 
into  the  matter,  he  makes  the  maid  to  answer,  *  Whoop,  do  me 
no  harm,  good  man; '  puts  him  off,  slights  him,  with  «  Whoop, 
do  me  no  harm,  good  man.' 

Polixenes.     This  is  a  brave  fellow. 

Clown.  Believe  me,  thou  talkest  of  an  admirable  conceited 
fellow.     Has  he  any  unbraided  wares? 

Servant.  He  hath  ribands  of  all  the  colours  i'  the  rainbow ; 
points,  more  than  all  the  lawyers  in  Bohemia  can  learnedly 
handle,  though  they  come  to  him  by  the  gross ;  inkles,  caddisses, 
cambrics,  lawns :  why,  he  sings  them  over,  as  they  were  gods 
or  goddesses :  you  would  think,  a  smock  were  a  she  angel :  he 
so  chants  to  the  sleeve  hand,  and  the  work  about  the  square  on't. 

Clown.  Pr'ythee,  bring  him  in;  and  let  him  approach 
singing. 

Perdita.  Forewarn  him,  that  he  use  no  scurrilous  words 
in  his  tunes. 

Clown.  You  have  of  these  pedlers,  that  have  more  in  'em 
than  you'd  think,  sister^ 

Perdita.     Ay,  good  brother,  or  go  about  to  think. 


25O  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

Enter  Autolycus,  singing. 

1  Lawn,  as  white  as  driven  snow ; 
Cyprus,  black  as  e'er  was  crow  ; 
Gloves,  as  sweet  as  damask  roses; 
Masks  for  faces,  and  for  noses ; 
Bugle  bracelet,  necklace-amber ; 
Perfume  for  a  lady's  chamber; 
Golden  quoifs,  and  stomachers, 
For  my  lads  to  give  their  dears ; 
Pins,  and  poking  sticks  of  steel, 
What  maids  lack  from  head  to  heel : 
Come,  buy  of  me,  come :  come  buy,  come  buy, 
Buy,  lads,  or  else  your  lasses  cry : 
Come,  buy.' 

Clown.  If  I  were  not  in  love  with  Mopsa,  thou  shouldst 
take  no  money  of  me  ;  but  being  enthrall'd  as  I  am,  it  will  also 
be  the  bondage  of  certain  ribands  and  gloves. 

Mopsa.  I  was  promised  them  against  the  feast ;  but  they 
come  not  too  late  now. 

Clown.     What  hast  here  ?  ballads  ? 

Mopsa.  Pray  now,  buy  some:  I  love  a  ballad  in  print 
a-life ;  for  then  we  are  sure  they  are  true. 

Autolycus.  Here's  one  to  a  very  doleful  tune,  how  a  usurer's 
wife  was  brought  to  bed  of  twenty  moneybags  at  a  burden ; 
and  how  she  longed  to  eat  adders'  heads,  and  toads  carbona- 
doed. 

Mopsa.     Is  it  true,  think  you? 

Autolycus.     Very  true,  and  but  a  month  old. 

Dorcas.     Bless  me  from  marrying  a  usurer ! 

Autolycus.  Here's  the  midwife's  name  to  't,  one  mistress 
Taleporter;  and  five  or  six  honest  wives,  that  were  present: 
Why  should  I  carry  lies  abroad  ? 

Mopsa.     'Pray  yOu  now,  buy  it. 

Clown.  Come  on,  lay  it  by :  And  let's  first  see  more  ballads ; 
we'll  buy  the  other  things  anon. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  2$  I 

Autolycus.  Here's  another  ballad.  Of  a  fish  that  appeared 
upon  the  coast,  on  Wednesday  the  four-score  of  April,  forty 
thousand  fathom  above  water,  and  sung  this  ballad  against  the 
hard  hearts  of  maids.  .  .  .  The  ballad  is  very  pitiful,  and  as 
true. 

Dorcas.     Is  it  true  too,  think  you  ? 

Autolycus.  Five  justices'  hands  at  it;  and  witnesses,  more 
than  my  pack  will  hold. 

Clown.     Lay  it  by  too :  Another. 

Autolycus.     This  is  a  merry  ballad;  but  a  very  pretty  one. 

Mofisa.     Let's  have  some  merry  ones. 

Autolycus.  Why,  this  is  a  passing  merry  one;  and  goes 
to  the  tune  of  '  Two  maids  wooing  a  man : '  there's  scarce 
a  maid  westward,  but  she  sings  it ;  'tis  in  request,  I  can  tell 
you. 

Mopsa.  We  can  both  sing  it ;  if  thou'lt  bear  a  part,  thou 
shalt  hear ;  'tis  in  three  parts. 

Dorcas.     We  had  the  tune  on  't  a  month  ago. 

Autolycus.  I  can  bear  my  part;  you  must  know,  'tis  my 
occupation :  have  at  it  with  you. 

SONG. 

A.     Get  you  hence,  for  I  must  go; 

Where,  it  fits  not  you  to  know. 
D.     Whither?     M.     O,  whither?     D.    Whither? 
M.     It  becomes  thy  oath  full  well, 

Thou  to  me  thy  secrets  tell : 
D.     Me  too,  let  me  go  thither. 

M.     Or  thou  go'st  to  the  grange  or  mill : 
D.     If  to  either,  thou  dost  ill. 
A.     Neither.     D.     What  neither?     A.     Neither. 
D.     Thou  hast  sworn  my  love  to  be : 
M.     Thou  hast  9worn  it  more  to  me; 
Then  whither  go'st?  say,  whither? 


252  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Clown.  We'll  have  this  song  out  anon  by  ourselves :  My 
father  and  the  gentlemen  are  in  sad  talk,  and  we'll  not  trouble 
them.  Come,  bring  away  thy  pack  after  me.  Wenches,  I'll 
buy  for  you  both.  Pedler ;  let's  have  the  first  choice.  —  Follow 
me,  girls. 

Autolycus.     And  you  shall  pay  well  for  'em.  [Aside. 

*  Will  you  buy  any  tape, 

Or  lace  for  your  cape, 
My  dainty  duck,  my  dear-a  ? 

Any  silk,  any  thread, 

Any  toys  for  your  head, 
Of  the  new'st,  and  finest,  finest,  wear-a? 

Come  to  the  pedler; 

Money's  a  medlar, 
That  doth  utter  all  men's  ware-a.' 

[Exeunt  Clown,  Autolycus,  Dorcas,  and Mopsa" 


We  have  already  spoken  of  the  refrains  of  the 
old  ballads ;  "  dildos  and  fadings "  allude  to  these 
refrains.  Malone,  Theobald,  and  Tyrwhitt  agree 
that  "fadings"  meant  an  old  Irish  dance.  Malone 
was  told  by  Irish  antiquaries  that  it  was  derived 
from  "Rinca  Fada,"  "The  Long  Dance,"  and  he 
quotes  a  song  from  "Sportive  Wit"  (1666),  which 
implies  that  it  was  rustic  in  character. 

"  The  courtiers  scorn  us  country  clowns, 
We  country  clowns  do  scorn  the  court ; 
We  can  be  as  merry  upon  the  downs, 
As  you  at  midnight,  with  all  your  sport, 
With  a  fading,  with  a  fading." 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


253 


Knight  (Vol.  II.  p.  383),  gives  a  full  account  of 
the  style  of  this  dance.  The  "jape"  was  a  violent 
explosion  of  mirth,  and  in  this  connection  we  have 
another  Shakespearian  jest,  for  the  clown  suggests 
that  Autolycus  reproves  evil-meaning  mirth  with 
"  Whoop,  do  me  no  harm,  good  man,"  which  would 
be  like  trying  to  extinguish  a  fire  with  oil,  for  the 
ballad  with  this  refrain  was  decidedly  not  fit  for 
publication.  Furness  says  (Variorum  Edition,  Vol. 
XL  p.  208) : 

"  Indeed,  the  humour,  in  the  whole  of  this  speech  by  the 
clown,  would  be  relished  by  an  Elizabethan  audience,  to  whom 
the  praise  bestowed  by  the  clown  on  the  decency  of  the  bal- 
lad would  be  at  once  recognised  as  one  of  the  jokes." 


Naylor,  in  his  '•  Shakespeare  and  Music,'"  gives  the  following  melody,  of 
which  the  last  words  only  are  presented,  as  being  a  popular  tune  of  the  16th 
century. 

Autolycus. 


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[Whoop,    do   me  no   harm,  good  man.] 


The    "ballad   of  a  fish"  affords   an    instance   of 
microscopic    commentary.       Halliwell,    not    content 


254  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

with  the  fact  that  Shakespeare  is  satirising  the 
entire  class  of  sensational  ballads,  tries  to  show 
that  there  was  a  ballad  about  a  "  monstruous  fish," 
published  about  seven  years  before  this  play  was 
written.  He  devotes  five  long  pages  to  a  number 
of  fish  ballads  ("Oh,  Flesh,  Flesh,  how  art  thou 
fi shifted  !  ")  and  other  "monstruosities."  The  fact 
of  such  humble  folk  as  are  here  represented  joining 
in  a  three-part  song  might  be  an  exaggeration  for 
Bohemia  in  the  epoch,  but  was  possible  in  England, 
and  we  may  repeat  that,  whether  the  scene  be  in 
Bohemia  or  elsewhere,  it  is  only  England,  and  Eliza- 
bethan and  Jacobean  England,  that  is  represented. 
The  original  music  of  the  songs  of  Autolycus  in 
this  scene  has  unfortunately  been  lost. 

Among  the  old  ballads  of  England  we  frequently 
find  some  which  present  the  plots  of  some  of  Shake- 
speare's plays  in  so  direct  a  fashion  that  one  might 
readily  imagine  the  poet  borrowing  points  from  them, 
in  spite  of  the  generally  adverse  verdict  of  the  com- 
mentators. The  ballad  of  "  Gernutus,  the  Jew  of 
Venice,"  runs  so  close  to  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice," 
that  it  has  been  supposed  that  Shakespeare,  here 
at  least,  drew  part  of  his  drama  from  the  old  song- 
recital.  Furness  believes  this  not  to  have  been  the 
case,  and  certain  added  incidents  which  are  not 
found  in  the  ballad,  and  are  to  be  discovered  in  an 
old    Italian  novel  by  Ser   Giovanni,  would   indicate 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


255 


that  the  play  and  the  ballad  both  came  from  the 
same  source.  We  give  the  ballad  entire,  from 
Percy's  "Reliques,"  and  also  its  melody  as  dis- 
covered by  Doctor  Rimbault. 


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256  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

"  A  new  Song,  shewing  the  crueltie  of  Gernutus,  a  Jewe,  who 
lending  to  a  merchant  an  hundred  crowns,  would  have 
a  pound  of  fleshe,  because  he  could  not  pay  him  at  the 
time  appointed.     To  the  tune  of  «  Black  and  Yellow.' 


THE  FIRST  PART. 

In  Venice  towne  not  long  agoe 

A  cruel  Jew  did  dwell, 
Which  lived  all  on  usurie, 

As  Italian  writers  tell. 

Gernutus  called  was  the  Jew, 
Which  never  thought  to  dye, 

Nor  ever  yet  did  any  good 
To  them  in  streets  that  lie. 

His  life  was  like  a  barrow  hogge, 

That  liveth  many,  a  day, 
Yet  never  once  doth  any  good 

Until  men  will  him  slay. 

Or  like  a  filthy  heap  of  dung, 

That  lieth  in  a  whoard  ; 
Which  never  can  do  any  good, 

Till  it  be  spread  abroad. 

So  fares  it  with  the  usurer, 

He  cannot  sleep  in  rest, 
For  feare  the  thiefe  will  him  pursue 

To  plucke  him  from  his  nest. 

His  hearte  doth  thinke  on  many  a  wile, 

How  to  deceive  the  poore  ; 
His  mouth  is  almost  ful  of  mucke, 

Yet  still  he  gapes  for  more. 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  2 $J 

His  wife  must  lend  a  shilling, 

For  every  weeke  a  penny, 
Yet  bring  a  pledge  that  is  double  worth, 

If  that  you  will  have  any. 

And  see,  likewise,  you  keepe  your  day, 

Or  else  you  loose  it  all : 
This  was  the  living  of  the  wife, 

Her  cow  she  did  it  call. 

Within  that  citie  dwelt  that  time 

A  marchant  of  great  fame, 
Which  being  distressed  in  his  need, 

Unto  Gernutus  came : 

Desiring  him  to  stand  his  friend 

For  twelve  month  and  a  day ; 
To  lend  to  him  an  hundred  crownes ; 

And  he  for  it  would  pay 

Whatsoever  he  would  demand  of  him, 
And  pledges  he  should  have : 
"  No  "  (quoth  the  Jew  with  fl earing  lookes), 
"  Sir,  aske  what  you  will  have, 

"  No  penny  for  the  loane  of  it 
For  one  you  shall  pay ; 
You  may  doe  me  as  good  a  turne, 
Before  my  dying  day. 

"  But  we  will  have  a  merry  jeast, 
For  to  be  talked  long  : 
You  shall  make  me  a  bond,"  quoth  he, 
"  That  shall  be  large  and  strong : 

"  And  this  shaM  be  the  forfeyture, 
Of  your  owne  fleshe  a  pound :- 


25 8  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

If  you  agree,  make  you  the  bond, 
And  here  is  a  hundred  crownes." 

"  With  right  good  will ! "  the  marchant  says 
And  so  the  bond  was  made. 
When  twelve  month  and  a  day  drew  on, 
That  backe  it  should  be  payd, 

The  marchant's  ships  were  all  at  sea, 

And  money  came  not  in ; 
Which  way  to  take,  or  what  to  doe 

To  thinke  he  doth  begin. 

And  to  Gernutus  strait  he  comes, 
With  cap  and  bended  knee ; 

And  sayde  to  him,  "  Of  curtesie, 
I  pray  you  beare  with  mee. 

"  My  day  is  come,  and  I  have  not 
The  money  for  to  pay  : 
And  little  good  the  forfeyture 
Will  doe  you,  I  dare  say." 

"  With  all  my  heart,"  Gernutus  sayd, 
"  Commaund  it  to  your  minde : 
In  thinges  of  bigger  waight  then  this 
You  shall  me  ready  finde." 

He  goes  his  way  ;  the  day  once  past, 

Gernutus  doth  not  slacke 
To  get  a  sergiant  presently, 

And  clapt  him  on  the  backe. 

And  layd  him  into  prison  strong, 
And  sued  his  bond  withall ; 

And  when  the  judgement  day  was  come, 
For  judgement  he  did  call. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  2$g 

The  marchant's  friends  came  thither  fast, 

With  many  a  weeping  eye, 
For  other  means  they  could  not  find, 

But  he  that  day  must  dye. 

THE   SECOND   PART. 

*  Of  the  Jew's  crueltie :  setting  foorth  the  mercifulnesse  of 
the  Judge  towards  the  Marchant.  To  the  tune  of  '  Blacke 
and  Yellow.' " 

Some  offered  for  his  hundred  crownes 

Five  hundred  for  to  pay ; 
And  some  a  thousand,  two  or  three, 

Yet  still  he  did  denay. 

And  at  the  last  ten  thousand  crownes 

They  offered,  him  to  save : 
Gernutus  sayd,  "  I  will  no  gold, 

My  forfeite  I  will  have. 

"  A  pound  of  fleshe  is  my  demand, 
And  that  shall  be  my  hire." 
Then  sayd  the  judge,  "  Yet,  good  my  friend, 
Let  me  of  you  desire 

"  To  take  the  flesh  from  such  a  place, 
As  yet  you  let  him  live : 
Do  so,  and  lo !  an  hundred  crownes 
To  thee  here  will  I  give." 

"  No,  no,"  quoth  he,  "  no,  judgment  here  ; 
For  this  it  shall  be  tride  ; 
For  I  will  have  my  pound  of  fleshe 
From  under  his  right  side." 

It  grieved  all  the  companie 
His  crueltie  to  see, 


260  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

For  neither  friend  nor  foe  could  helpe 
But  he  must  spoyled  bee. 

The  bloudie  Jew  now  ready  is 
With  whetted  blade  in  hand, 

To  spoyle  the  bloud  of  innocent, 
By  forfeit  of  his  bond. 

And  as  he  was  about  to  strike 
In  him  the  deadly  blow, 
"  Stay  "  (quoth  the  judge)  "  thy  crueltie ; 
I  charge  thee  to  do  so. 

**  Sith  needs  thou  wilt  thy  forfeit  have, 
Which  is  of  flesh  a  pound, 
See  that  thou  shed  no  drop  of  bloud, 
Nor  yet  the  man  confound. 

«  For  if  thou  doe,  like  murderer 
Thou  here  shalt  hanged  be : 
Likewise  of  flesh  see  that  thou  cut 
No  more  than  longes  to  thee. 

"  For  if  thou  take  either  more  or  lesse, 
To  the  value  of  a  mite, 
Thou  shall  be  hanged  presently, 
As  is  both  law  and  right." 

Gernutus  now  waxt  franticke  mad, 
And  wotes  not  what  to  say ; 

Quoth  he  at  last,  "  Ten  thousand  crownes 
I  will  that  he  shall  pay; 

"  And  so  I  graunt  to  set  him  free." 
The  judge  doth  answere  make; 

"You  shall  not  have  a  penny  given; 
Your  forfeyture  now  take." 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  26 1 

At  the  last  he  doth  demaund 
But  for  to  have  his  owne  : 
"  No,"  quoth  the  judge,  "  doe  as  you  list, 
Thy  judgement  shall  be  showne. 

"  Either  take  your  pound  of  flesh,"  quoth  he, 

"  Or  cancell  me  your  bond :  " 
"  O  cruell  judge,"  then  quoth  the  Jew, 

"  That  doth  against  me  stand  !  " 

And  so  with  griping  grieved  mind 

He  biddeth  them  farewell : 
Then  all  the  people  prays'd  the  Lord, 

That  ever  this  heard  tell. 

Good  people,  that  doe  heare  this  song, 

For  trueth  I  dare  well  say, 
That  many  a  wretch  as  ill  as  hee 

Doth  live  now  at  this  day ; 

That  seeketh  nothing  but  the  spoyle 

Of  many  a  wealthey  man, 
And  for  to  trap  the  innocent 

Deviseth  what  they  can. 

From  whome  the  Lord  deliver  me, 

And  every  Christian  too, 
And  send  to  them  like  sentence  eke 

That  meaneth  so  to  doe. 

Nor  is  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice "  the  only  play 
which  comes  near  to  an  anterior  ballad  ;  "  King  Lear  " 
also  has  its  prototype  in  this  shape.  In  this  case 
there  is  no  sure  evidence  that  the  ballad  preceded 
the  play.  The  mel^ly,  which  we  also  present,  is  the 
old  melody  known  as  "  Flying  Fame,"  which  was  very 


262 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


popular  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  cannot  be 
traced  to  a  definite  date  of  origin. 


KING  LEAR  AND  HIS  THREE  DAUGHTERS. 


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'    j.    * — 

A  lamentable  song  of  the  death  of  King  Leir  and  his  three 
Daughters.     To  the  tune  of  "  When  Flying  Fame." 

King  Leir  once  ruled  in  this  land 
With  princely  power  and  peace, 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  263 

And  had  all  things  with  hearts  content, 

That  might  his  joys  increase. 
Amongst  those  things  that  nature  gave, 

Three  daughters  fair  had  he, 
So  princely  seeming  beautiful, 

As  fairer  could  not  be. 

So  on  a  time  it  pleas'd  the  king 

A  question  thus  to  move, 
Which  of  his  daughters  to  his  grace 

Could  shew  the  dearest  love : 
"  For  to  my  age  you  bring  content," 

Quoth  he,  "  then  let  me  hear, 
Which  of  you  three  in  plighted  troth 

The  kindest  will  appear." 

To  whom  the  eldest  thus  began : 
"  Dear  father,  mind,"  quoth  she, 
"  Before  your  face,  to  do  you  good, 
My  blood  shall  render'd  be. 
And  for  your  sake  my  bleeding  heart 

Shall  here  be  cut  in  twain, 
Ere  that  I  see  your  reverend  age 
The  smallest  grief  sustain." 

"  And  so  will  I,"  the  second  said ; 
"  Dear  father,  for  your  sake, 
The  worst  of  all  extremities 

I'll  gently  undertake : 
And  serve  your  highness  night  and  day 

With  diligence  and  love ; 
That  sweet  content  and  quietness 
Discomforts  may  remove." 

"  In  doing  so,  you  glad  my  soul," 
The  aged  king  repli'd  ; 


264  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

"  But  what  sayst  thou,  my  youngest  girl, 

How  is  thy  love  ally'd  ?  " 
44  My  love  "  (quoth  young  Cordelia  then), 
"  Which  to  your  grace  I  owe, 
Shall  be  the  duty  of  a  child, 
And  that  is  all  I'll  show." 

«*  And  wilt  thou  shew  no  more,"  quoth  he, 
«  Than  doth  thy  duty  bind  ? 
I  well  perceive  thy  love  is  small, 

When  as  no  more  I  find. 
Henceforth  I  banish  thee  my  court ; 

Thou  art  no  child  of  mine ; 
Nor  any  part  of  this  my  realm 
By  favour  shall  be  thine. 

"  Thy  elder  sisters  loves  are  more 

Than  well  I  can  demand ; 
To  whom  I  equally  bestow 

My  kingdome  and  my  land, 
My  pompal  state  and  all  my  goods, 

That  lovingly  I  may 
With  those  thy  sisters  be  maintain'd 

Until  my  dying  day." 

Thus  flattering  speeches  won  renown, 

By  these  two  sisters  here ; 
The  third  had  causeless  banishment, 

Yet  was  her  love  more  dear. 
For  poor  Cordelia  patiently 

Went  wandring  up  and  down, 
Unhelp'd,  unpity'd,  gentle  maid, 

Through  many  an  English  town : 

Untill  at  last  in  famous  France 
She  gentler  fortunes  found ; 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  265 

Though  poor  and  bare,  yet  she  was  deem'd 

The  fairest  on  the  ground : 
Where  when  the  king  her  virtues  heard, 

And  this  fair  lady  seen, 
With  full  consent  of  all  his  court 

He  made  his  wife  and  queen. 

Her  father,  old  King  Leir,  this  while 

With  his  two  daughters  staid  ; 
Forgetful  of  their  promis'd  loves, 

Full  soon  the  same  decay'd ; 
And  living  in  Queen  Ragan's  court, 

The  eldest  of  the  twain, 
She  took  from  him  his  chiefest  means, 

And  most  of  all  his  train. 

For  whereas  twenty  men  were  wont 

To  wait  with  bended  knee, 
She  gave  allowance  but  to  ten, 

And  after  scarce  to  three, 
Nay,  one  she  thought  too  much  for  him ; 

So  took  she  all  away, 
In  hope  that  in  her  court,  good  king, 

He  would  no  longer  stay. 

*  Am  I  rewarded  thus,"  quoth  he, 
"  In  giving  all  I  have 
Unto  my  children,  and  to  beg 

For  what  I  lately  gave  ? 
I'll  go  unto  my  Gonorell : 

My  second  child,  I  know, 

Will  be  more  kind  and  pitiful, 

And  will  relieve  my  woe." 

Full  fast  he  Hies  then  to  her  court; 
Where  when  she  heard  his  moan, 


266  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

Return'd  him  answer,  that  she  griev'd 
That  all  his  means  were  gone, 

But  no  way  could  relieve  his  wants ; 
Yet  if  that  he  would  stay 

Within  her  kitchen,  he  should  have 
What  scullions  gave  away. 

When  he  had  heard,  with  bitter  tears, 
He  made  his  answer  then ; 
M  In  what  I  did,  let  me  be  made 
Example  to  all  men. 

I  will  return  again,"  quoth  he, 

"  Unto  my  Ragan's  court ; 

She  will  not  use  me  thus,  I  hope, 
But  in  a  kinder  sort." 

Where  when  he  came,  she  gave  command 

To  drive  him  thence  away : 
When  he  was  well  within  her  court, 

(She  said)  he  would  not  stay. 
Then  back  again  to  Gonorell 

The  woeful  king  did  hie, 
That  in  her  kitchen  he  might  have 

What  scullion  boys  set  by. 

But  there  of  that  he  was  deny'd 

Which  she  had  promis'd  late: 
For  once  refusing,  he  should  not, 

Come  after  to  her  gate. 
Thus  twixt  his  daughters  for  relief 

He  wandred  up  and  down, 
Being  glad  to  feed  on  beggars  food 

That  lately  wore  a  crown. 

And  calling  to  remembrance  then 
His  youngest  daughters  words, 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  267 

That  said,  the  duty  of  a  child 

Was  all  that  love  affords  — 
But  doubting  to  repair  to  her, 

Whom  he  had  banish'd  so, 
Grew  frantic  mad  ;  for  in  his  mind 

He  bore  the  wounds  of  woe. 

Which  made  him  rend  his  milk-white  locks 

And  tresses  from  his  head, 
And  all  with  blood  bestain  his  cheeks, 

With  age  and  honour  spread. 
To  hills  and  woods  and  watry  founts, 

He  made  his  hourly  moan, 
Till  hills  and  woods  and  senseless  things 

Did  seem  to  sigh  and  groan. 

Even  thus  possest  with  discontents, 

He. passed  o're  to  France, 
In  hopes  from  fair  Cordelia  there 

To  find  some  gentler  chance. 
Most  virtuous  dame !  which,  when  she  heard 

Of  this  her  father's  grief, 
As  duty  bound,  she  quickly  sent 

Him  comfort  and  relief. 

And  by  a  train  of  noble  peers, 

In  brave  and  gallant  sort, 
She  gave  in  charge  he  should  be  brought 

To  Aganippus'  court; 
Whose  royal  king,  with  noble  mind, 

So  freely  gave  consent 
To  muster  up  his  knights  at  arms, 

To  fame  and  courage  bent. 

And  so  to  England  came  with  speed, 
To  repossesse  King  Leir, 


Z6S  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

And  drive  his  daughters  from  their  thrones 

By  his  Cordelia  dear. 
Where  she,  true-hearted,  noble  queen, 

Was  in  the  battel  slain ; 
Yet  he,  good  king,  in  his  old  days, 

Possest  his  crown  again. 

But  when  he  heard  Cordelia's  death, 

Who  died  indeed  for  love 
Of  her  dear  father,  in  whose  cause 

She  did  this  battle  move, 
He  swooning  fell  upon  her  breast, 

From  whence  he  never  parted ; 
But  on  her  bosom  left  his  life 

That  was  so  truly  hearted. 

The  lords  and  nobles,  when  they  saw 

The  end  of  these  events, 
The  other  sisters  unto  death 

They  doomed  by  consents ; 
And  being  dead,  their  crowns  they  left 

Unto  the  next  of  kin : 
Thus  have  you  seen  the  fall  of  pride, 

And  disobedient  sin. 


We  cite  one  more  example  of  an  old  English  ballad 
related  to  the  Shakespearian  drama.  As  in  the  case 
of  the  one  quoted  above,  it  is  difficult  to  determine 
whether  the  play  or  the  ballad  came  first,  yet,  we 
may  suppose,  had  the  tragedy  preceded  the  ballad, 
the  song  writer  would  have  availed  himself  of  some 
of  the  leading  incidents  which  are  conspicuous  by 
their  absence  in  his  effort.     The  same  point  may  be 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


269 


argued  in  favour  of  the  precedence  of  the  other  two 
ballads  given,  to  the  plays  with  which  they  seem  re- 
lated. But  it  would  be  hazardous  to  fix  a  definite 
date  for  such  fugitive  compositions  as  these ;  the 
reader  must  seek  his  own  verdict  by  comparison,  in 
this  case.  The  author  does  not  consider  them  valu- 
able Shakespearian  data,  but  presents  them  (from 
Bishop  Percy's  "  Reliques  "  and  Rimbault's  "  Musical 
Illustrations)  "  as  good  examples  of  the  old  English 
ballad  style  in  its  fullest  prolixity  and  musical 
monotony. 


THE  LAMENTABLE    AND    TRAGICAL    HISTORY    OF    TITUS 
ANDRONICUS. 

To  the  tune  of  "  Fortune." 
TITUS   ANDRONICUS'S   COMPLAINT. 


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SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


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You  noble  minds,  and  famous  martiall  wights, 
That  in  defence  of  native  country  fights, 
Give  eare  to  me,  that  ten  yeares  fought  for  Rome, 
Yet  reapt  disgrace  at  my  returning  home. 

In  Rome  I  lived  in  fame  fulle  three-score  yeares, 
My  name  beloved  was  of  all  my  peeres ; 
Full  five-and-twenty  valiant  sonnes  I  had, 
Whose  forwarde  vertues  made  their  father  glad. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  2*J\ 

For  when  Romes  foes  their  warlike  forces  bent, 
Against  them  stille  my  sonnes  and  I  were  sent; 
Against  the  Goths  full  ten  yeares  weary  warre 
We  spent,  receiving  many  a  bloudy  scarre. 

Just  two-and-twenty  of  my  sonnes  were  slaine 
Before  we  did  returne  to  Rome  againe : 
Of  five-and-twenty  sonnes,  I  brought  but  three 
Alive,  the  stately  towers  of  Rome  to  see. 

When  wars  were  done,  I  conquest  home  did  bring, 
And  did  present  my  prisoners  to  the  king, 
The  Queene  of  Goths,  her  sons,  and  eke  a  Moore, 
Which  did  such  murders,  like  was  nere  before. 

The  emperour  did  make  this  queene  his  wife, 
Which  bred  in  Rome  debate  and  deadlie  strife ; 
The  Moore,  with  her  two  sonnes,  did  growe  soe  proud. 
That  none  like  them  in  Rome  might  bee  allowd. 

The  Moore  soe  pleas'd  this  new-made  empress'  eie, 
That  she  consented  to  him  secretlye 
For  to  abuse  her  husbands  marriage-bed, 
And  soe  in  time  a  blackamore  she  bred. 

Then  she,  whose  thoughts  to  murder  were  inclinde, 
Consented  with  the  Moore  of  bloody  minde 
Against  myselfe,  my  kin,  and  all  my  friendes, 
In  cruell  sort  to  bring  them  to  their  endes. 

Soe  when  in  age  I  thought  to  live  in  peace, 
Both  care  and  griefe  began  then  to  increase : 
Amongst  my  sonnet  I  had  one  daughter  bright, 
Which  joy'd  and  pleased  best  my  aged  sight. 


272  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

My  deare  Lavinia  was  betrothed  than 
To  Cesars  sonne,  a  young  and  noble  man: 
Who,  in  a  hunting  by  the  emperours  wife 
And  her  two  sonnes,  bereaved  was  of  life. 

He,  being  slaine,  was  cast  in  cruel  wise 
Into  a  darksome  den  from  light  of  skies: 
The  cruell  Moore  did  come  that  way  as  then 
With  my  three  sonnes,  who  fell  into  the  den. 

The  Moore  then  fetcht  the  emperour  with  speed, 
For  to  accuse  them  of  that  murderous  deed ; 
And  when  my  sonnes  within  the  den  were  found, 
In  wrongfull  prison  they  were  cast  and  bound. 

But  nowe  behold  what  wounded  most  my  mind: 
The  empresses  two  sonnes,  of  savage  kind, 
My  daughter  ravished  without  remorse, 
And  took  away  her  honour,  quite  perforce. 

When  they  had  tasted  of  soe  sweete  a  flowre, 
Fearing  this  sweete  should  shortly  turn  to  sowre, 
They  cutt  her  tongue,  whereby  she  could  not  tell 
How  that  dishonoure  unto  her  befell. 

Then  both  her  hands  they  basely  cutt  off  quite, 
Whereby  their  wickednesse  she  could  not  write, 
Nor  with  her  needle  on  her  sampler  sowe 
The  bloudye  workers  of  her  direfull  woe. 

My  brother  Marcus  found  her  in  the  wood, 
Staining  the  grassie  ground  with  purple  bloud, 
That  trickled  from  her  stumpes  and  bloudlesse  armes 
Noe  tongue  at  all  she  had  to  tell  her  harmes. 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  2JI 

But  when  I  sawe  her  in  that  woefull  case, 
With  teares  of  bloud  I  wet  mine  aged  face : 
For  my  Lavinia  I  lamented  more 
Then  for  my  two-and-twenty  sonnes  before. 

When  as  I  sawe  she  could  not  write  nor  speake 
With  grief  mine  aged  heart  began  to  breake; 
We  spred  an  heape  of  sand  upon  the  ground, 
Whereby  those  bloudy  tyrants  out  we  found. 

For  with  a  staffe,  without  the  helpe  of  hand, 
She  writt  these  wordes  upon  the  plat  of  sand : 
"  The  lustfull  sonnes  of  the  proud  emperesse 
Are  doers  of  this  hateful  wickednesse." 


I  tore  the  milk-white  hairs  from  off  mine  head, 
I  curst  the  houre  wherein  I  first  was  bred ; 
I  wisht  this  hand,  that  fought  for  countrie's  fame, 
In  cradle  rockt,  had  first  been  stroken  lame. 

The  Moore,  delighting  still  in  villainy, 
Did  say,  to  sett  my  sonnes  from  prison  free, 
I  should  unto  the  king  my  right  hand  give, 
And  then  my  three  imprisoned  sonnes  should  live. 

The  Moore  I  caus'd  to  strike  it  off  with  speede, 
Whereat  I  grieved  not  to  see  it  bleed, 
But  for  my  sonnes  would  willingly  impart, 
And  for  their  ransome  send  my  bleeding  heart. 

But  as  my  life  did  linger  thus  in  paine, 
They  sent  to  me  my  bootlesse  hand  againe, 
And  therewithal  the  heades  of  my  three  sonnes, 
Which  filld  my  dying  heart  with  fresher  moanes. 


274  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Then,  past  reliefe,  I  upp  and  downe  did  goe, 
And  with  my  teares  writ  in  the  dust  my  woe : 
I  shot  my  arrowes  towards  heaven  hie, 
And  for  revenge  to  hell  often  did  crye. 

The  empresse  then,  thinking  that  I  was  mad, 
Like  Furies  she  and  both  her  sonnes  were  clad, 
(She  nam'd  Revenge,  and  Rape  and  Murder  they) 
To  undermine  and  heare  what  I  would  say. 

I  fed  their  foolish  veines  a  certaine  space, 
Untill  my  friendes  did  find  a  secret  place, 
Where  both  her  sonnes  unto  a  post  were  bound, 
And  just  revenge  in  cruell  sort  was  found. 

I  cut  their  throates,  my  daughter  held  the  pan 
Betwixt  her  stumpes,  wherein  the  bloud  it  ran  : 
And  then  I  ground  their  bones  to  powder  small, 
And  made  a  paste  for  pyes  streight  therewithall. 

Then  with  their  fleshe  I  made  two  mighty  pyes, 
And  at  a  banquet  served  in  stately  wise, 
Before  the  empresse  set  this  loathsome  meat ; 
So  of  her  sonnes  own  flesh  she  well  did  eat. 

Myselfe  bereav'd  my  daughter  then  of  life, 
The  empresse  then  I  slewe  with  bloudy  knife, 
And  stabb'd  the  emperour  immediatelie, 
And  then  myself :  even  soe  did  Titus  die. 

Then  this  revenge  against  the  Moore  was  found; 
Alive  they  sett  him  halfe  into  the  ground, 
Whereas  he  stood  until  such  time  he  starv'd  : 
And  soe  God  send  all  murderers  may  be  serv'd. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  2?$ 

More  interesting  than  these  dreary  verses  of  a 
bygone  time  are  the  ballads  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  Shakespeare  introduced  upon  his  own  stage. 
Often  a  mere  passing  allusion  was  made  to  this  or 
that  popular  tune,  without  introducing  the  ballad 
itself.  We  have  seen  Sir  Toby  naming  catch  after 
catch,  yet  only  singing  one  complete  specimen. 
Peter,  in  "Romeo  and  Juliet,"  mentions  three 
songs,  yet  sings  only  the  fragment  of  a  single  one. 
In  like  manner  we  find  allusion  made,  in  "  Love's 
Labour's  Lost "  (Act  i.  Sc.  2),  to  one  of  the  old  bal- 
lads of  a  pre-Shakespearian  time  : 

tl  Armado.  Is  there  not  a  ballad,  boy,  of  the  King  and  the 
Beggar  ? 

Moth.  The  world  was  very  guilty  of  such  a  ballad  some 
three  ages  since :  but,  I  think,  now  'tis  not  to  be  found,  or,  if 
it  were,  it  would  neither  serve  for  the  writing,  nor  the  tune. 

Armado.  I  will  have  the  subject  newly  writ  o'er,  that  I 
may  example  my  digression  by  some  mighty  precedent.  Boy, 
I  do  love  that  country  girl,  that  I  took  in  the  park  with  that 
rational  hind  Costard  ;  she  deserves  well. 

Moth.  To  be  whipped,  and  yet  a  better  love  than  my 
master.  [Aside. 

Armado.     Sing,  boy;  my  spirit  grows  heavy  in  love. 

Moth.     And  that's  great  marvel,  loving  a  light  wench. 

Armado.     I  say,  sing. 

Moth.     Forbear,  till  this  company  be  past." 

Nor  is  this  the  only  Shakespearian  allusion  to  the 
ballad  of  "King  Cophetua  and  the  Beggar  Maid," 


2J6  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

for  in  "  Romeo  and  Juliet "  (Act  ii.  Sc.  2),  Mercutio 

says: 

"  Her  purblind  son  and  heir, 
Young  Adam  Cupid,  he  that  shot  so  true, 
When  King  Cophetua  loved  the  beggar-maid." 

It  is  very  probable  that  the  second  line  of  this  sen- 
tence was  taken  from  the  first  line  of  the  second 
stanza  of  the  following  poem.  Also  in  the  Second 
Part  of  "Henry  IV."  (Act  v.  Sc.  3)  Falstaff  says 
to  Pistol : 

"  Oh  base  Assyrian  knight,  what  is  thy  news  ? 
Let  King  Cophetua  know  the  truth  thereof." 

Other  of  the  old  dramatists  occasionally  drew  their 
metaphors  from  the  same  source,  —  the  following 
ballad,  which  Percy  quotes  from  Richard  Johnson's 
"Crown  Garland  of  Goulden  Roses,"  1612. 

A   SONG   OF  A   BEGGAR   AND   A   KING. 

I  read  that  once  in  Affrica 

A  princely  wight  did  raine, 
Who  had  to  name  Cophetua, 

As  poets  they  did  faine. 
From  natures  lawes  he  did  decline, 
For  sure  he  was  not  of  my  minde, 
He  cared  not  for  women-kind, 

But  did  them  all  disdaine. 
But  marke  what  hapned  on  a  day; 
As  he  out  of  his  window  lay, 
He  saw  a  beggar  all  in  gray, 

The  which  did  cause  his  paine. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC*  .  277 

The  blinded  boy  that  shootes  so  trim 

From  heaven  downe  did  hie, 
He  drew  a  dart  and  shot  at  him, 

In  place  where  he  did  lye : 
Which  soone  did  pierse  him  to  the  quicke, 
And  when  he  felt  the  arrow  pricke, 
Which  in  his  tender  heart  did  sticke, 

He  looketh  as  he  would  dye. 
"What  sudden  chance  is  this,"  quoth  he, 
"  That  I  to  love  must  subject  be, 
Which  never  thereto  would  agree, 

But  still  did  it  defie  ?  " 

Then  from  the  window  he  did  come, 

And  laid  him  on  his  bed  ; 
A  thousand  heapes  of  care  did  runne 

Within  his  troubled  head. 
For  now  he  meanes  to  crave  her  love, 
And  now  he  seekes  which  way  to  proove 
How  he  his  fancie  might  remoove, 

And  not  this  beggar  wed. 
But  Cupid  had  him  so  in  snare, 
That  this  poor  beggar  must  prepare 
A  salve  to  cure  him  of  his  care, 

Or  els  he  would  be  dead. 

And  as  he  musing  thus  did  lye, 

He  thought  for  to  devise 
How  he  might  have  her  companye, 

That  so  did  'maze  his  eyes. 
"  In  thee,"  quoth  he,  "  doth  rest  my  life; 
For  surely  thou  shalt  be  my  wife  ; 
Or  else  this  hand  with  bloody  knife, 

The  Gods  shall  sure  suffice." 
Then  from  ms  bed  he  soon  arose, 
And  to  his  pallace  gate  he  goes ; 


278  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Full  little  then  this  begger  knowes 
When  she  the  king  espies. 

u  The  gods  preserve  your  majesty," 

The  beggers  all  gan  cry  ; 
"  Vouchsafe  to  give  your  charity, 

Our  childrens  food  to  buy." 
The -king  to  them  his  purse  did  cast, 
And  they  to  part  it  made  great  haste; 
This  silly  woman  was  the  last 

That  after  them  did  hye. 
The  king  he  cal'd  her  back  againe, 
And  unto  her  he  gave  his  chaine  ; 
And  said,  "  With  us  you  shal  remaine 

Till  such  time  as  we  dye. 

«  For  thou,"  quoth  he,  "  shalt  be  my  wife, 

And  honoured  for  my  queene ; 
With  thee  I  meane  to  lead  my  life, 

As  shortly  shall  be  seene  : 
Our  wedding  shall  appointed  be, 
And  every  thing  in  its  degree ; 
Come  on,"  quoth  he,  "  and  follow  me, 

Thou  shalt  go  shift  thee  cleane. 
What  is  thy  name,  faire  maide  ?  "  quoth  he. 
"  Penelophon,  O  King,"  quoth  she ; 
With  that  she  made  a  lowe  courtsey ; 

A  trim  one  as  I  weene. 

Thus  hand  in  hand  along  they  walke 

Unto  the  king's  pallace : 
The  king  with  courteous,  comly  talke 

This  begger  doth  embrace. 
The  begger  blush eth  scarlet  red, 
And  straight  againe  as  pale  as  lead, 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  279 

But  not  a  word  at  all  she  said, 

She  was  in  such  amaze. 
At  last  she  spake  with  trembling  voyce, 
And  said,  "  O  King,  I  doe  rejoyce 
That  you  wil  take  me  for  your  choyce, 

And  my  degree  so  base." 

And  when  the  wedding  day  was  come, 

The  king  commanded  strait 
The  noblemen,  both  all  and  some, 

Upon  the  queene  to  wait. 
And  she  behaved  herself  that  day 
As  if  she  had  never  walkt  the  way ; 
She  had  forgot  her  gowne  of  gray, 

Which  she  did  weare  of  late. 
The  proverbe  old  is  come  to  passe, 
The  priest,  when  he  begins  his  masse, 
Forgets  that  ever  clerke  he  was; 

He  knowth  not  his  estate. 

Here  you  may  read  Cophetua, 

Through  long  time  fancie-fed, 
Compelled  by  the  blinded  boy 

The  begger  for  to  wed : 
He  that  did  lovers  lookes  disdaine, 
To  do  the  same  was  glad  and  faine, 
Or  else  he  would  himselfe  have  slaine, 

In  storie,  as  we  read. 
Disdaine  no  whit,  O  lady  deere, 
But  pitty  now  thy  servant  heere, 
Least  that  it  hap  to  thee  this  yeare, 

As  to  that  king  it  did. 

And  thus  they  led  a  quiet  life 
During  their  princely  raine, 


280  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

And  in  a  tombe  were  buried  both, 

As  writers  sheweth  plaine. 
The  lords  they  tooke  it  grievously, 
The  ladies  tooke  it  heavily, 
The  commons  cryed  pitiously, 

Their  death  to  them  was  paine, 
Their  fame  did  sound  so  passingly, 
That  it  did  pierce  the  starry  sky, 
And  throughout  all  the  world  did  flye 

To  every  princes  realme. 

We  need  no  apology  for  the  quotation  of  this  bal- 
lad in  full,  for  Shakespeare  makes  abundant  use  of 
it  in  the  latter  part  of  "  Love's  Labour's  Lost." 
Armado  certainly  keeps  his  promise  of  having  the 
subject  "newly  writ  o'er,"  for  his  entire  declaration 
of  love  (Act  iv.  Sc.  i)  is  derived  from  the  fore- 
going ballad. 

"  Boyet.     This  letter  is  mistook,  it  importeth  none  here ; 
It  is  writ  to  Jaquenetta. 

Princess.  We  will  read  it,  I  swear : 

Break  the  neck  of  the  wax,  and  every  one  give  ear. 

Boyet.  {Reads)  "  By  Heaven,  that  thou  art  fair,  is  most  infal- 
lible ;  true,  that  thou  art  beauteous ;  truth  itself,  that  thou  art 
lovely.  More  fairer  than  fair,  beautiful  than  beauteous,  truer 
than  truth  itself,  have  commiseration  on  thy  heroical  vassal ! 
The  magnanimous  and  most  illustrate  king  Cophetua  set  eye 
upon  the  pernicious  and  indubitate  beggar  Zenelophon ;  ■  and 
he  it  was  that  might  rightly  say,  <veni,  vidi,  vici; '  which  to 
anatomize  in  the  vulgar,  (O  base  and  obscure  vulgar!)  videli- 
cet, he  came,  saw  and  overcame:  he  came,  one;  saw,  two; 

1  Shakespeare  probably  intends  an  error  here. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  28 1 

overcame,  three.  Who  came  ?  the  king ;  Why  did  he  come  ? 
to  see :  Why  did  he  see  ?  to  overcome :  To  whom  came  he  ? 
to  the  beggar :  What  saw  he  ?  the  beggar :  Who  overcame 
he  ?  the  beggar.  The  conclusion  is  victory ;  On  whose  side  ? 
the  king's :  The  captive  is  enriched ;  On  whose  side  ?  the 
beggar's ;  the  catastrophe  is  a  nuptial ;  On  whose  side  ? 
the  king's  ?  —  no,  on  both  in  one,  or  one  in  both.  I  am  the 
king  ;  for  so  stands  the  comparison :  thou  the  beggar ;  for  so 
witnesseth  thy  lowliness.  Shall  I  command  thy  love  ?  I  may. 
Shall  I  enforce  thy  love  ?  I  could.  Shall  I  entreat  thy  love  ? 
I  will.  What  sh alt  thou  exchange  for  rags?  robes;  For  tittles, 
titles :  For  thyself,  me.  Thus,  expecting  thy  reply,  I  profane 
my  lips  on  thy  foot,  my  eyes  on  thy  picture,  and  my  heart  on 
thy  every  part. 

Thine,  in  the  dearest  design  of  industry. 

Don  Adriano  de  Armado." 

Another  interesting  introduction  of  a  fragment  of 
a  ballad  occurs  in  "  Hamlet "  (Act  ii.  Sc.  2),  while 
the  prince  is  feigning  insanity,  and  here,  as  Shake- 
speare was  fond  of  doing  in  his  most  piquant  mo- 
ments, we  have  the  words  of  the  poem  strung  along 
through  the  action  : 

"  Hamlet.    *  O  Jephtha,  judge  of  Israel,'  —  what  a  treasure 
hadst  thou ! 

Polonius.     What  a  treasure  had  he,  my  lord  ? 

Hamlet.     Why  — «  One  fair  daughter,  and  no  more, 
The  which  he  loved  passing  well.' 

Polonius.     Still  on  my  daughter.  [Aside. 

Hamlet.     Am  I   not  i'  the  right,  old  Jephtha? 

Polonius.     If  you  call  me  Jephtha,  my  lord,  I  have  a  daughu  ^yL 

ter  that  I  love  passing  well. 

Hamlet.     Nay,  that  follows  not. 


282  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Polonius.     What  follows  then,  my  lord  ? 

Hamlet.  Why,  '  As  by  lot,  God  wot,'  and  then,  you  know, 
•  It  came  to  pass,  As  most  like  it  was,'  —  The  first  row  of  the 
pious  chanson  will  shew  you  more ;  for  look,  my  abridgment 
comes. 

Enter  Four  or  Five  Players." 

Although  only  the  first  part  of  this  ballad  is  alluded 
to  here,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  reprint  as  much  of 
it  as  Bishop  Percy  has  discovered,  for  the  sake  of  the 
quaintness  of  the  versification  and  the  general  naivete* 
of  the  story. 

Have  you  not  heard  vhese  many  years  ago, 

Jeptha  was  judge  of  Israel  ? 
He  had  one  only  daughter  and  no  mo, 
The  which  he  loved  passing  well. 
And  as  by  lott, 
God  wot, 
It  so  came  to  pass, 
As  Gods  will  was, 
That  great  wars  there  should  be, 
And  none  should  be  chosen  chief  but  he. 

And  when  he  was  appointed  judge, 

And  chieftain  of  the  company, 
A  solemn  vow  to  God  he  made, 
If  he  returned  with  victory, 
At  his  return, 
To  burn 
The  first  live  thing. 


That  should  meet  with  him  then, 

Off  his  house  when  he  should  return  agen. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  283 

It  came  to  pass,  the  wars  was  o'er, 

And  he  returned  with  victory ; 
His  dear  and  only  daughter  first  of  all 
Came  to  meet  her  father  foremostly: 
And  all  the  way 
She  did  play 
On  tabret  and  pipe, 
Full  many  a  stripe, 
With  note  so  high, 
For  joy  that  her  father  is  come  so  nigh. 

But  when  he  saw  his  daughter  dear 

Coming  on  most  foremostly, 
He  wrung  his  hands,  and  tore  his  hair, 
And  cryed  out  most  piteously : 
"  Oh  !  it's  thou,"  said  he, 
"  That  have  brought  me 
Low, 
And  troubled  me  so 
That  I  know  not  what  to  do. 

**  For  I  have  made  a  vow,"  he  sed, 
"  The  which  must  be  replenished ; " 

•  •••...•« 

"  What  thou  hast  spoke 
Do  not  revoke, 
What  thou  hast  said ; 
Be  not  afraid ; 
Altho'  it  be  I, 
Keep  promises  to  God  on  high. 

*  But,  dear  father,  grant  me  one  request, 

That  I  may  go  to  the  wilderness, 
Three  months^here  with  my  friends  to  stay; 
There  to  bewail  my  virginity  ; 


284  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

And  let  there  be," 
Said  she, 
«  Some  two  or  three 
Young  maids  with  me." 
So  he  sent  her  away, 
For  to  mourn,  for  to  mourn,  till  her  dying  day. 

With  one  other  ballad,  which  Shakespeare  seems 
to  have  enjoyed  and  to  have  quoted  more  than  once, 
we  leave  this  branch  of  a  subject  that  is  apt  to  grow 
dangerously  prolix,  because  of  the  great  length  of 
the  old  ballad-writers,  and  their  carelessness  of  poetic 
subtleties  and  refinements.  "  Greensleeves  "  comes 
to  the  front  twice  in  the  comedy  of  "The  Merry 
Wives  of  Windsor."  It  is  spoken  of  by  Falstaff 
(Act  v.  Sc.  5). 

"  Let  the  sky  rain  potatoes  ;  let  it  thunder  to  the  tune  of 
*  Green  Sleeves ; '  hail  kissing-comfits  and  snow  eringoes  ;  let 
there  come  a  tempest  of  provocation,  I  will  shelter  me  here. 

[Embraces  Mrs.  lord" 

But  a  far  wittier  jest  than  "thundering  to  the  tune 
of  '  Greensleeves,'  "  is  found  in  the  first  scene  of  the 
second  act  of  the  same  play.  It  is  where  Mistress 
Ford  and  Mistress  Page  compare  their  love-letters. 
As  Mrs.  Ford  shows  her  own,  she  says : 

"  We  burn  day-light :  —  here,  read,  read ;  perceive  how  I 
might  be  knighted.  I  shall  think  the  worse  of  fat  men,  as 
long  as  I  have  an  eye  to  make  difference  of  men's  liking :  and 
yet  he  would  not  swear ;  praised  woman's  modesty  ;   and  gave 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  285 

such  orderly  and  well-behaved  reproof  to  all  uncomeliness,  that 
I  would  have  sworn  his  disposition  would  have  gone  to  the 
truth  of  his  words :  but  they  do  no  more  adhere  and  keep  place 
together,  than  the  hundredth  Psalm  to  the  tune  of  *  Green 
Sleeves.'  What  tempest,  I  trow,  threw  this  whale,  with  so 
many  tuns  of  oil  in  his  belly,  ashore  at  Windsor  ?  How  shall 
I  be  revenged  on  him  ?  " 


Here  we  find  a  most  musicianly  jest :  the  disagree- 
ment of  FalstafFs  words  with  his  actual  nature  is 
compared  to  the  disagreement  of  poetry  with  its 
musical  setting.  One  finds  plenty  of  such  disagree- 
ments in  the  musical  repertoire,  but  only  the  con- 
scientious musician  is  shocked  by  them.  Rossini 
presented  the  weeping  mother,  full  of  anguish  and 
sorrow,  standing  beside  the  cross,  by  the  most 
cheerful  and  brilliant  music,  in  "  Cujus  Animam;" 
Donizetti  pictured  the  heart-broken  Lucia  and  the 
furious  Edgar  both  to  the  same  mellifluous  strains, 
in  the  charmingly  melodic  sextette  in  "  Lucia  di 
Lammermoor."  But  thinkers  in  music  do  not  toler- 
ate such  juggleries,  and  such  widely  separated  person- 
alities as  Herbert  Spencer  (essay  on  "  Education  "), 
and  Richard  Wagner,  have  attacked  such  mesalliances. 
Here  we  find  Shakespeare  also  giving  an  implied 
arraignment  of  such  unfitness.  The  jest  might  be 
modernised  into  —  "  FalstafFs  words  and  deeds  no 
more  fit  together  than  Gray's  *  Elegy '  to  the  tune  of 
Offenbach's  *  Cancan.' " 


2  86  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Since  Shakespeare  has  twice  alluded  to  the  old 
ballad,  it  is  interesting  to  study  what  is  known  of  it. 
It  seems  to  have  been  very  popular  in  the  Elizabethan 
time,  for  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  speak  of  it  in  "  The 
Loyal  Subject,"  it  was  attacked  by  Elderton  in  1580, 
and  numerous  different  sets  of  words  were  sung  to  it 
during  the  Shakespearian  epoch,  and  in  later  times. 
It  is  spoken  of  as  "a  new  tune,"  in  1580  and  in 
1584.  It  seems  to  have  been  of  rather  questionable 
character  in  its  earliest  stages.  Of  course  a  large 
part  of  the  flavour  of  Shakespeare's  jest  arises  from 
the  yoking  together  a  godly  subject  and  a  tune  that 
had  been  associated  with  immorality.  Chappell,  in 
his  "  National  Music  "  (p.  39), ,  cites  many  different 
settings  of  the  tune  to  all  kinds  of  words,  from  Scrip- 
tural to  political.  It  is,  however,  unquestionable  that 
Shakespeare  had  in  mind  the  wantonness  of  this  ditty, 
in  its  original  state,  when  he  causes  Mistress  Ford  to 
make  her  jest,  for  it  thus  becomes  one  of  the  most 
perfect  musical  metaphors  in  his  works.  Naylor 
("  Shakespeare  and  Music,"  p.  75)  wastes  his  time  in 
trying  to  fit  "  All  people  that  on  earth  do  dwell  " 
(the  hundredth  psalm)  to  a  tune  of  Hawkins,  and 
proving  that  the  accents  come  out  wrong  ;  but  the 
jest  is  much  more  spicy  than  a  mere  matter  of 
accents. 

We  reproduce  the  tune  of  "  Greensleeves "  as  it 
was  sung  in  Shakespeare's  time. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


287 


"GREENSLEEVES." 
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At  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  we  found  Shake- 
speare intensifying  th^ effect  of  tragic  scenes  by  light 
and  frivolous  songs  ;  that  he  did  not  always  use  such 


288  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

an  antithesis  may  be  seen  by  referring  to  the  third 
scene  of  the  fourth  act  of  "  Othello."  This  pathetic 
portion  of  the  play  is  as  follows  ;  Desdemona  has  a 
presentiment  of  coming  evil  and  says  : 

"  My  mother  had  a  maid  call'd  —  Barbara ; 
She  was  in  love  :  and  he,  she  loved,  proved  mad, 
And  did  forsake  her :  she  had  a  song  of  —  willow, 
An  old  thing  'twas,  but  it  express'd  her  fortune, 
And  she  died  singing  it :  That  song,  to-night, 
Will  not  go  from  my  mind ;  I  have  much  to  do, 
But  to  hang  my  head  all  at  one  side, 
And  sing  it  like  poor  Barbara.     Pr'ythee,  despatch. 

Emilia.     Shall  I  go  fetch  your  night-gown  ? 

Desdemona.     No,  unpin  me  here. 
This  Lodovico  is  a  proper  man. 

Emilia.     A  very  handsome  man. 

Desdemona.     He  speaks  well. 

Emilia.     I  know  a  lady  in  Venice,  who  would  have  walked 
bare-footed  to  Palestine,  for  a  touch  of  his  lip. 

I. 

Desdemona.  [Sings. 

'  The  poor  soul  sat  sighing  by  a  sycamore  tree, 

Sing  all  a  green  willow  ; 
Her  hand  on  her  bosom,  her  head  on  her  knee, 

Sing  willow,  willow,  willow : 
The  fresh  streams  ran  by  her,  and  murmur'd  her  moans ; 

Sing  willow,  etc. 
Her  salt  tears  fell  from  her,  and  softened  the  stones ;  ■ 
Lay  by  these : 

'  Sing  willow,  willow,  willow : ' 
Pr'ythee,  hie  thee ;  he'll  come  anon  — 

1  Sing  all  a  green  willow,  must  be  my  garland.' 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  289 

II. 

«  Let  nobody  blame  him,  his  scorn  I  approve,'  — 

Nay  that's  not  next.  —  Hark  !  who  is  it  that  knocks  ? 
Emilia.     It  is  the  wind. 
Desdemona. 
' 1  call'd  my  love,  false  love ;  but  what  said  he  then  ? 
Sing  willow,  etc. 
If  I  court  mo  women,  you'll  couch  with  mo  men.' " 

Rolfe,  in  his  edition  of  "  Much  Ado  About  Nothing," 
cites  a  number  of  instances  of  the  willow  being  em- 
blematic of  an  unhappy  love,  as,  for  example,  Spenser 
in  "  Faerie  Queene  :  " 

"  The  willow,  worne  of  forlorne  Paramours ; " 

Lyly,  in  "  Sappho  and  Phao  :  " 

"  Enjoy  thy  care  in  covert ; 
Weare  willow  in  thy  hat,  and  bayes  in  thy  heart ; " 

Swan,  "Speculum  Mundi,"  1635  : 

"  It  is  yet  a  custom  that  he  which  is  deprived  of  his  love 
must  wear  a  willow  garland ;  " 

and  Fuller,  in  his  "Worthies,"  describes  the  willow 
as  — 

"  A  sad  tree,  whereof  such  who  have  lost  their  love,  make 
their  mourning  garlands,  and  we  know  what  exiles  hung  up 
their  harps  upon  such  dolefull  supporters.  The  twigs  hereof 
are  physick  to  drive  out^he  folly  of  children,"  etc.1 

1  Rolfe  Notes  to  "  Much  Ado  About  Nothing,"  p.  131. 


29O  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Both  Rossini  and  Verdi  have  set  "  Othello  "  as  an 
opera,  and  both  composed  plaintive,  folk-song-like 
melody  to  "  O,  Salce,  Salce,"  —  "  O,  Willow,  Willow." 
It  would  have  been  a  charming  touch  of  antiquarian 
beauty,  had  the  two  composers  introduced  the  tune, 
which  Shakespeare  himself  intended  to  illustrate  his 
scene,  into  their  scores. 

The  melody  which  he  employed  is  given  herewith, 
a  charming  old  English  tune.  It  is  taken  from  a 
manuscript  in  the  British  Museum. 

The  original  words  are  given  by  Bishop  Percy  in 
his  "  Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry."  In  the 
old  black-letter  copy  the  forsaken  one  is  a  youth  and 
not  a  maiden ;  Shakespeare  evidently  altered  the 
words  slightly  to  suit  his  dramatic  purpose.  The 
following  version  (Percy  states)  is  taken  from  a  copy 
in  the  Pepys  collection,  entitled,  "  A  Lover's  Com- 
plaint, being  forsaken  of  his  Love." 

A  poore  soule  sat  sighing  under  a  sicamore  tree ; 

O  willow,  willow,  willow  ! 
With  his  hand  on  his  bosom,  his  head  on  his  knee : 

O  willow,  willow,  willow ! 

O  willow,  willow,  willow ! 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow  shall  be  my  garland. 

He  sigh'd  in  his  singing,  and  after  each  grone, 
Come  willow,  etc. 
"  I  am  dead  to  all  pleasure,  my  true-love  is  gone. 
O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow  shall  be  my  garland. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


291 


P 


OH!  WILLOW,  WILLOW,  WILLOW!* 

Words  and  Music  from  a  Manuscript  of  Shakespeare's  time. 

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SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  293 

"  My  love  she  is  turned  ;  untrue  she  doth  prove ; 

O  willow,  etc. 
She  renders  me  nothing  but  hate  for  my  love. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

"  O  pitty  me  "  (cried  he),  "  ye  lovers,  each  one ; 

O  willow,  etc. 
Her  heart's  hard  as  marble ;  she  rues  not  my  mone. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc." 

The  cold  streams  ran  by  him,  his  eyes  wept  apace ; 

O  willow,  etc. 
The  salt  tears  fell  from  him,  which  drowned  his  face. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

The  mute  birds  sate  by  him,  made  tame  by  his  mones : 

O  willow,  etc. 
The  salt  tears  fell  from  him,  which  softened  the  stones. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow  shall  be  my  garland  ! 

"  Let  nobody  blame  me,  her  scornes  I  do  prove  ; 

O  willow,  etc. 
She  was  borne  to  be  faire ;  I,  to  die  for  her  love. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

"  O  that  beauty  should  harbour  a  heart  that's  so  hard ! 

Sing  willow,  etc. 
My  true  love  rejecting  without  all  regard. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 


294  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

"  Let  love  no  more  boast  him  in  palace,  or  bower; 

O  willow,  etc. 
For  women  are  trothles,  and  flote  in  an  houre. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

"  But  what  helps  complaining  ?  In  vaine  I  complaine : 

O  willow,  etc. 
I  must  patiently  suffer  her  scorne  and  disdaine. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

"  Come,  all  you  forsaken,  and  sit  down  by  me, 

O  willow,  etc. 
He  that  'plaines  of  his  false  love,  mine's  falser  than  she. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

"The  willow  wreath  weare  I,  since  my  love  did  fleet; 

O  willow,  etc. 
A  garland  for  lovers  forsaken  most  meete. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow  shall  be  my  garland  ! " 


PART  THE    SECOND. 

"  Lowe  lay'd  by  my  sorrow,  begot  by  disdaine, 

O  willow,  willow,  willow  ! 
Against  her  too  cruell,  still,  still  I  complaine. 

O  willow,  willow,  willow ! 

O  willow,  willow,  willow  ! 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow  shall  be  my  garland ! 

"  O  love  too  injurious,  to  wound  my  poore  heart, 
O  willow,  etc. 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  295 

To  suffer  the  triumph,  and  joy  in  my  smart ! 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

"  O  willow,  willow,  willow  !  the  willow  garland, 
O  willow,  etc. 
A  sign  of  her  falsenesse  before  me  doth  stand. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow  shall  be  my  garland. 

"  As  here  it  doth  bid  to  despair  and  to  dye, 

O  willow,  etc. 
So  hang  it,  friends,  ore  me  in  grave  where  I  lye. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

"  In  grave  where  I  rest  mee,  hang  this  to  the  view, 

O  willow,  etc. 
Of  all  that  doe  knowe  her,  to  blaze  her  untrue. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

u  With  these  words  engraven,  as  epitaph  meet, 

O  willow,  etc. 
1  Here  lyes  one,  drank  poyson  for  potion  most  sweet.' 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

«  Though  she  thus  unkindly  hath  scorned  my  love, 
O  willow,  etc. 
And  carelesly  smiles  at  the  sorrowes  I  prove  5 
O  willow,  etc. 

Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

% 

"  I  cannot  against  her  unkindly  exclaim, 
O  willow,  etc. 


296  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Cause  once  well  I  loved  her,  and  honoured  her  name. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow  shall  be  my  garland. 

"  The  name  of  her  sounded  so  sweete  in  mine  eare, 

O  willow,  etc. 
It  rays'd  my  heart  lightly,  the  name  of  my  deare ; 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

"  As  then  'twas  my  comfort,  it  now  is  my  griefe ; 

O  willow,  etc. 
It  now  brings  me  anguish ;  then  brought  me  reliefe. 

O  willow,  etc. 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow,  etc. 

"  Farewell,  faire  false-hearted,  plaints  end  with  my  breath  ! 

O  willow,  willow,  willow  ! 
Thou  dost  loath  me,  I  love  thee,  though  cause  of  my  death. 

O  willow,  willow,  willow  ! 

O  willow,  willow,  willow ! 
Sing,  O  the  greene  willow  shall  be  my  garland." 

Here  then  we  have  a  pathetic  scene  heightened  by 
a  tender  and  melancholy  ballad.  There  is  a  passing 
allusion  to  a  very  pathetic  ballad  in  "  Henry  IV.  " 
(Part  II.  Act  ii.  Sc.  4),  where  Pistol  says : 

"  Pistol.  What !  shall  we  have  incision  ?  shall  we  imbrue  ?  — ■ 

[Snatching  up  his  sword. 
Then  death  rock  me  asleep,  abridge  my  doleful  days  / 
Why  then,  let  grievous,  ghastly,  gaping  wounds 
Untwine  the  sisters  three !     Come,  Atropos,  I  say  I  " 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  297 

The  line  in  italics  is  taken  from  a  sorrowful 
song  which  is  said  to  have  been  written  by  Anne 
Boleyn,  after  her  downfall,  beginning,  — 

"  Oh,  Death,  rocke  me  asleep." 

The  reader  will  find  it  in  the  second  volume  of  Chap- 
pell's  "  Old  English  Ditties." 

It  is  difficult  to  decide  in  which  direction  Shake- 
speare has  been  strongest ;  the  light  songs  of  Ophelia, 
the  foreboding  melancholy  of  Desdemona,  the  por- 
trayal of  the  befuddled  Sir  Toby  by  his  snatches  of 
refrains  of  bacchanalian  songs,  are  all  different  phases 
of  one  art.  There  is  still  another  phase  of  this  art 
to  study,  however,  and  in  the  next  chapter  we  shall 
see  our  poet  in  the  domain  of  absolute  parody. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

Shakespeare's  Lyrics  —  The  Lyric  Poets  of  the  Elizabethan  Epoch 
—  Ben  Jonson  —  Marlowe  —  Parodies  of  other  Poets  —  Doubt- 
ful Poems  —  The  Numerous  Settings  of  Shakespeare's  Poems 
— "  Take,  Oh,  Take  Those  Lips  Away  "  —  "  Come,  Live  with 
Me  and  Be  My  Love A  —  German  Translations  and  German 
Musical  Settings  of  Shakespeare  —  Schubert's  "  Hark,  Hark, 
the  Lark  "  —  Purcell. 

That  Shakespeare  should  write  many  lyrics  in  his 
plays  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  He  lived  in  an 
age  when  there  was  the  strongest  tendency  toward 
the  lyric  forms.  Ritson,  in  his  "  Select  Collection  of 
English  Songs,"  gives  an  important  historical  essay 
upon  this  subject,  in  which  he  states  that  not  a  single 
composition  of  the  modern  lyrical  style,  containing 
a  spark  of  literary  merit,  can  be  discovered  before 
the  Elizabethan  era.  We  are  disposed  to  place  "  rare 
Ben  Jonson"  at  the  head  of  the  lyrical  writers  of 
the  era,  if  it  were  only  on  account  of  that  finest  of 
love-songs  (as  good  as  any  of  its  length  in  any  lan- 
guage), "  Drink  to  me  only  with  thine  eyes."  We 
may  state,  en  passant,  that  this  poem  evoked  the 
finest  of  contemporary  music,  a  melody  and  harmony 

298 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  299 

so  rich  and  beautiful  that  many  have  credited  it  to 
Mozart,  but  as  Doctor  Burney,  contemporary  with 
Mozart,  sought  in  vain  to  discover  its  composer,  we 
may  dismiss  this  theory  and  content  ourselves  with 
the  fact  that  one  of  the  best  lyrics  of  the  Elizabethan 
time,  both  words  and  music,  has  come  down  to  us 
intact. 

Shakespeare  occasionally  made  use  of  the  poems 
of  his  contemporaries,  in  his  plays,  often  alluding  to 
them  (as  we  have  seen)  by  some  borrowed  phrase, 
frequently  giving  a  title  of  some  poem  or  song,  some- 
times interweaving  them  in  the  action  of  his  drama, 
and  sometimes  even  parodying  the  lyric.  A  parody 
of  this  kind,  and  a  very  subtle  one,  we  find  in  the 
grave-digging  scene  in  "  Hamlet."  Fortunately,  in 
this  case,  both  the  original  poem  and  the  music  are 
left  to  us,  so  that  we  can  trace  every  detail  of  the 
poet's  humour.  The  musical  part  of  the  scene  runs 
as  follows : 

"  [First  Clown  digs  and  sings. 
« In  youth,  when  I  did  love,  did  love, 

Methought,  it  was  very  sweet, 
To  contract,  O,  the  time,  for,  ah,  my  behove, 

O,  methought,  there  was  nothing  meet.' 

Hamlet.  Has  this  fellow  no  feeling  of  his  business?  he 
sings  at  grave-making. 

Horatio.  Custom  hath  made  it  in  him  a  property  of  easi- 
ness. ^ 

Hamlet.  'Tis  e'en  so  :  the  hand  of  little  employment  hath 
the  daintier  sense. 


300  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

First  Clown.  [Sings. 

■  But  age  with  his  stealing  steps, 
Hath  claw'd  me  in  his  clutch, 
And  hath  shipped  me  into  the  land, 
As  if  I  had  never  been  such.' 

[  Throws  up  a  skull. 
Hamlet.  That  skull  had  a  tongue  in  it,  and  could  sing 
once.  How  the  knave  jowls  it  to  the  ground,  as  if  it  were 
Cain's  jaw-bone,  that  did  the  first  murder !  This  might  be  the 
pate  of  a  politician,  which  this  ass  now  o'er-reaches ;  one  that 
would  circumvent  God,  might  it  not  ? 
Horatio.     It  might,  my  lord. 

Hamlet.     Or  of  a  courtier ;  which  could  say,  '  Good-mor- 
row, sweet  lord  !  How  dost  thou,  good  lord  ? '      This  might 
be  my  lord  such-a-one,  that  praised  my  lord  such-a-one's  horse, 
when  he  meant  to  beg  it :  might  it  not  ? 
Horatio.     Ay,  my  lord. 

Hamlet.  Why,  e'en  so :  and  now  my  lady  Worm's ;  chap- 
less  and  knocked  about  the  mazzard  with  a  sexton's  spade. 
Here's  fine  revolution,  an  we  had  the  trick  to  see  't.  Did  these 
bones  cost  no  more  the  breeding,  but  to  play  at  loggats  with 
them  ?  mine  ache  to  think  on  't. 
First  Clown. 

1 A  pick-axe,  and  a  spade,  a  spade,  [Sings. 

For —  and  a  shrouding  sheet : 
O,  a  pit  of  clay  for  to  be  made 
For  such  a  guest  is  meet.' 

[Throws  up  a  skull." 

The  words  of  the  song,  as  they  appear  above,  have 
little  meaning  at  any  time,  and  occasionally  descend 
to  sheer  gibberish  ;  yet  they  had  their  foundation  in 
a  poem  which  possessed  definite  meaning.  This 
poem  was  entitled  "The  Aged  Lover  Renounceth 


Clown.  —  (Si?igs.)  "  AMck-axe  and  a  spade,  a  spade." 

(Hamlet,  Act  v.  Sc.  i.) 
From  the  painting  by  F.  Stielen 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  301 

Love,"  and  was  written  before  1575.  It  was  attrib- 
uted by  Ritson  to  Nicholas,  Lord  Vaux ;  by  Percy 
to  Thomas,  his  son ;  and  by  Sir  Egerton  Brydges  to 
William,  the  grandson  of  the  first-named.  The  poem, 
as  collated  by  Percy,  runs  thus : 

I  lothe  that  I  did  love, 

In  youth  that  I  thought  swete, 
As  time  requires  :  for  my  behove 

Me  thinkes  they  are  not  mete. 

My  lustes  they  do  me  leave, 

My  fansies  all  are  fled  ; 
And  tract  of  time  begins  to  weave 

Gray  heares  upon  my  hed. 

For  Age  with  steling  steps 

Hath  clawde  me  with  his  crowch,* 

And  lusty  Youth  e  away  he  leapes, 
As  there  had  bene  none  such. 

My  muse  doth  not  delight 

Me,  as  she  did  before  ; 
My  hand  and  pen  are  not  in  plight, 

As  they  have  bene  of  yore. 

For  Reason  me  denies 

All  youthly  idle  rime ; 
And  day  by  day  to  me  she  cries, 
"  Leave  off  these  toyes  in  tyme." 


The  wrinkles  in  my  brow, 
The  furrowes  in  my  face 

1  Probably  meaning  "  clutch." 


302  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Say,  "  Limping  Age  will  lodge  him  now 
Where  Youth  must  geve  him  place." 

The  harbenger  of  death, 

To  me  I  se  him  ride : 
The  cough,  the  cold,  the  gasping  breath 

Doth  bid  me  to  provide 

A  pikeax  and  a  spade, 

And  eke  a  shrouding  shete, 

A  house  of  clay  for  to  be  made 
For  such  a  guest  most  mete. 

Me  thinkes  I  hear  the  clarke 
That  knoles  the  careful  knell, 

And  bids  me  leave  my  wearye  warke, 
Ere  Nature  me  compell. 

My  kepers  knit  the  knot, 

That  Youth  doth  laugh  to  scorne, 

Of  me  that  shall  bee  clean  forgot, 
As  I  had  ne'er  been  borne. 

Thus  must  I  Youth  geve  up, 
Whose  badge  I  long  did  weare; 

To  them  I  yelde  the  wanton  cup, 
That  better  may  it  beare. 

Lo  here  the  bared  skull, 

By  whose  bald  signe  I  know, 

That  stouping  Age  away  shall  pull 
What  youthful  yeres  did  sow. 

For  Beautie  with  her  band 

These  croked  cares  had  wrought, 

And  shipped  me  into  the  lande, 
From  whence  I  first  was  brought. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


303 


And  ye  that  bide  behinde, 

Have  ye  none  other  trust; 
As  ye  of  claye  were  cast  by  kinde, 

So  shall  ye  turne  to  dust. 

This  song  was  erroneously  supposed  to  have  been 
written  by  the  author  upon  his  death-bed.  The  Shake- 
spearian scene  founded  upon  it  affords  a  fine  example 
of  an  illiterate  character  catching  the  sound,  but  not 
the  sense,  of  a  poem.  We  present  the  old  air  as 
given  by  Doctor  Rimbault  in  his  collection  of  melo- 
dies to  Percy's  "  Reliques." 


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THE  AGED  LOVER  RENOUNCETH  LOVE. 

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304 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


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Many  of  Shakespeare's  own  lyrics  have  been  set  to 
music  over  and  over  again  ;  Roffe,  in  his  "  Handbook 
of  Shakespeare  Music,"  and  Green  hill,  Harrison,  and 
Furnivall,  in  their  list  of  Shakespeare  songs,  give  a 
computation  of  the  number  of  musical  settings  that 
becomes  almost  marvellous.  "Take,  oh,  take  those 
lips  away,"  has  been  set  more  than  thirty  times ; 
"  Orpheus  with  His  Lute  "  (which,  by  the  way,  was 
written  by  John  Fletcher  and  not  by  Shakespeare) 
has  been  set  twenty-one  times  ;  "  Who  is  Sylvia  ?  " 
and  "It  was  a  lover  and  his  lass,"  each  eighteen 
times;  Marlowe's  "Come  live  with  me  and  be  my 
Love,"  sixteen  times.1 

In  connection  with  the  last-named  selection  it  may 
be  stated  that  Jaggard  printed  it  in  1 599  as  Shake- 
speare's (in  "  The  Passionate  Pilgrim  "),  but  it  is  now 
pretty  well  settled  that  the  verses  are  Marlowe's,  and 


1  Roffe's  list  is  a  remarkably  full  one,  and  the  reader  who  desires 
statistical  information  in  this  matter  will  find  it  in  his  well-compiled 
index,  but  recent  composers  (among  them  many  Americans)  have 
greatly  increased  the  number  of  musical  settings. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  305 

they  are  credited  to  that  poet  in  "England's  Heli- 
con" (1600)  ;  Shakespeare,  however,  introduces  part 
of  the  poem  in  "  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  in 
the  scene  where  Sir  Hugh  Evans  is  waiting  for 
Doctor  Caius  (Act  iii.  Sc.  1). 

« Enter  Sir  Hugh  Evans  and  Simple. 

Evans.  I  pray  you  now,  good  master  Slender's  serving- 
man,  and  friend  Simple  by  your  name,  which  way  have  you 
looked  for  master  Caius,  that  calls  himself  Doctor  of  Physic  ? 

Simple.  Marry,  sir,  the  city-ward,  the  park-ward,  every  way ; 
old  Windsor  way,  and  every  way  but  the  town  way. 

Evans.  I  most  fehemently  desire  you,  you  will  also  look 
that  way. 

Simple.     I  will,  sir. 

Evans.  Pless  my  soul !  how  full  of  cholers  I  am  and  trem- 
pling  of  mind  !  —  I  shall  be  glad,  if  he  have  deceived  me ;  — 
how  melancholies  I  am  !  — .  .  .  'pless  my  soul !  [Sings. 

To  shallow  rivers,  to  whose  falls 
Melodious  birds  sing  madrigals  ; 
There  will  we  make  our  peds  of  roses, 
And  a  thousand  fragrant  posies. 
To  shallow 

Mercy  on  me  :  I  have  a  great  dispositions  to  cry. 

Melodious  birds  sing  madrigals  : 

When  as  I  sat  in  Pabylon, 

And  a  thousand  vagram  posies. 
To  shallow 

Simple.     Yonder  he  is  coming,  this  way,  Sir  Hugh. 


Evans.     He's  welcome 


306  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

To  shallow  rivers  to  whose  falls 

Heaven  prosper  the  right !  " 

The  original  passage  upon  which  the  above  singing 
is  founded  runs  : 

"  There  will  we  sit  upon  the  Rocks, 
And  see  the  Shepheards  feed  their  flocks, 
By  shallow  Rivers  by  whose  falls 
Melodious  birds  sing  Madrigals. 

"  There  will  I  make  thee  a  bed  of  Roses 
With  a  thousand  fragrant  Posies,"  etc. 

Furnivall  analyses  the  scene  thus : 

"  In  his  nervous  condition,  Evans  misquotes  the  words  of 
the  song,  and  at  last  breaks  down  altogether.  The  mention 
of  Rivers,  however,  recalls  professional  associations ;  so  that 
in  his  'trempling  of  minde,'  and  with  his  'dispositions  to 
cry,'  he  unconsciously  mingles  the  sacred  and  the  secular,  by 
tacking  on  to  Marlowe's  verses  the  first  line  of  the  old  metrical 
version  of  the  137th  psalm  (super  flumine)'. 

"When  we  did  sit  in  Babylon, 
The  Rivers  round  about, 
Then  in  remembrance  of  Sion, 
The  tears  for  grief  burst  out.'  " 

As  there  is  still  some  contention  regarding  the 
authorship  of  "  Come  live  with  me,"  although  the 
best  authorities  agree  in  awarding  the  authorship  to 
Kit  Marlowe,  we  reproduce  the  poem  that  has  caused 
so  much  music,  together  with  what  is  probably  its 
earliest  setting. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


307 


'COME  LIVE  WITH  ME  AND  BE  MY  LOVE." 


Tune  discovered  by  Sir  John  Hawkins,  in  a  MS.  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  time. 

Rather  Slow.  v 


5ft 


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Come  live  with  me       and    be    my     love,  And   we    will 


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the   pi eas-ures  prove  That    val  -  lies,  groves  or 


all 


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«E 


1—1 — [— 1 r— 1 — r    |      [•    # 

hills  and  fields,  And  all      the   stee-py  mountain  yields. 


^ 


1 


3fc=3 


*t 


Come  live  with  me,  and  be  my  love, 
And  we  wil  all  the  pleasures  prove 
That  hils  and  vallies,  dale  and  field, 
And  all  the  craggy  mountains  yield. 


There  will  we  sit  upon  the  rocks, 
And  see  the  shepherds  feed  their  flocks 
By  shallow  rivers,  to  whose  falls 
Melodious  birds  sing  madrigals. 


308  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

There  will  I  make  thee  beds  of  roses, 
With  a  thousand  fragrant  posies  ; 
A  cap  of  flowers,  and  a  kirtle 
Imbrodered  all  with  leaves  of  mirtle ; 

A  gown  made  of  the  finest  wool 
Which  from  our  pretty  lambs  we  pull ; 
Fair-lined  slippers  for  the  cold, 
With  buckles  of  the  purest  gold ; 

A  belt  of  straw  and  ivie  buds, 
With  coral  clasps  and  amber  studs : 
And  if  these  pleasures  may  thee  move, 
Then  live  with  me,  and  be  my  love. 

The  shepherd  swains  shall  dance  and  sing 
For  thy  delight  each  May  morning: 
If  these  delights  thy  mind  may  move, 
Then  live  with  me  and  be  my  love. 

THE   NYMPH'S    REPLY. 

If  that  the  World  and  Love  were  young, 
And  truth  in  every  shepherd's  toung, 
These  pretty  pleasures  might  me  move 
To  live  with  thee,  and  be  thy  love. 

But  time  drives  flocks  from  field  to  fold, 
When  rivers  rage,  and  rocks  grow  cold, 
And  Philomel  becometh  dumb, 
And  all  complain  of  cares  to  come. 

The  flowers  do  fade,  and  wanton  fields 
To  wayward  winter  reckoning  yield  ; 
A  honey  tongue,  a  heart  of  gall, 
Is  fancie's  spring,  but  sorrow's  fall. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  309 

Thy  gowns,  thy  shoes,  thy  beds  of  roses, 
Thy  cap,  thy  kirtle,  and  thy  posies, 
Soon  break,  soon  wither,  soon  forgotten, 
In  folly  ripe,  in  reason  rotten. 

Thy  belt  of  straw,  and  ivie  buds, 
Thy  coral  clasps,  and  amber  studs ; 
All  these  in  me  no  means  can  move 
To  come  to  thee,  and  be  thy  love. 

But  could  youth  last,  and  love  still  breed ; 
Had  joyes  no  date,  nor  age  no  need ; 
Then  these  delights  my  mind  might  move 
To  live  with  thee,  and  be  thy  love. 


The  "  Reply "  is  probably  not  by  Marlowe,  since 
it  appears  in  "  England's  Helicon "  (1600)  signed 
"  Ignoto,"  which  has  been  accepted  by  many  critics 
as  the  pseudonym  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  early  composers  were 
more  attached  to  that  very  doubtful  work,  "The 
Passionate  Pilgrim,"  than  to  the  plays  of  Shakespeare. 
The  above  poem  is  No.  xix.  of  the  set ;  No.  xvii. 
of  the  same  heterogeneous  work  —  "  My  flocks  feed 
not" — was  set  as  a  madrigal  as  early  as  1597,  by 
Thomas  Weelkes,  and  remains  a  worthy  example  of 
the  contrapuntal  style  of  the  epoch.  But  this  latter 
poem  was  printed  in  "England's  Helicon,"  in  1600, 
and  also  bore  the  signature,  "  Ignoto ; "  there  is, 
therefore,  considera&e  doubt  as  to  whether  Shake- 
speare wrote  it.     We  have  seen  that  to  "  Take,  oh, 


3IO  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

take  those  lips  away"  belongs  the  honour  of  the 
most  copious  setting  of  any  of  the  lyrics  found 
in  the  Shakespearian  plays,1  but  even  here  a  ques- 
tion arises  and  some  doubt  surrounds  the  poem.  It 
reappears  in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  "  Bloody 
Brother"  in  1639  an^  1640,  and  has  here  two 
stanzas,  the  second  running : 

"  Hide,  oh  hide  those  hills  of  snow 
Which  thy  frozen  bosom  bears, 
On  whose  tops  the  pinks  that  grow 
Are  of  those  that  April  wears ; 
But  first  set  my  poor  heart  free, 
Bound  in  those  icy  chains  by  thee." 

The  two  stanzas  are  credited  to  Shakespeare  in 
the  doubtful  edition  of  his  poems  dated  "London, 
1640,"  and  many  commentators  since  that  time  have 
attributed  both  to  him.  R.  G.  White  believes  the 
first  stanza  to  be  Shakespeare's,  and  credits  the 
second  to  Fletcher,  pointing  out,  also  (Vol.  III. 
p.  126),  that  the  two  stanzas  do  not  assimilate  well 
and  could  not  be  sung  to  the  same  music  if  the  first 
verse  be  given  as  presented  in  "  Measure  for  Meas- 
ure." Sewel  and  Gildon  added  many  spurious  poems 
to  the  lyrics  of  Shakespeare,  which  have  since  been 

1  Yet  Shakespeare's  lyrics  have  by  no  means  been  set  to  music  as 
often  as  those  of  certain  other  poets.  Heine's  "  Du  bist  wie  eine 
Blume  "  has  been  oftener  set  to  music  than  any  other  poem ;  more 
than  two  hundred  settings  exist. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  3  1 1 

rejected  from  careful  editions  of  his  works ;  the  first 
stanza  of  this  poem,  however,  is  so  charming  that 
one  is  loath  to  take  the  credit  of  it  away  from  the 
greatest  poet. 

Naturally  the  composers  have  found  their  chief 
material  in  the  Shakespearian  comedies,  while  the 
histories  have  yielded  the  least  musical  material  for 
musical  setting. 

The  Germans  have  been  eminent  in  their  Shake- 
spearian lyrics,  even  from  the  classical  period,  and 
have  been  aided  in  this  by  very  good  and  sing- 
able translations.  For  a  full  presentation  of  these 
we  refer  the  reader  to  the  exhaustive  "Variorum 
Edition,"  by  Furness,  contenting  ourselves  here  with 
saying  that  the  great  poet  Lessing  first  revealed  the 
glories  of  Shakespeare  to  German  readers,  and  since 
his  time  Schlegel,  Goethe,  Wieland,  Gervinus,  Tieck, 
Bodenstedt,  Mommsen,  and  a  host  of  others,  have 
given  to  Germany  a  Shakespearian  literature  that 
is  almost  as  voluminous  as  the  English.1  The  Ger- 
mans, too,  have  caught  up  the  spirit  of  our  poet 
better  than  any  other  nation,  so  much  so  that  there 
are  a  few  Teutonic  writers  who  boast  that  the  Ger- 
man mind  best  appreciates  Shakespeare,  and  would 
almost  have  us  believe  that  Germany  led  the  way 


1  See,  also,  article  on  "  Shakespeare  in  Germany  "  in  supplemental 
volume  of  Knight's  Shakespeare. 


3  1 2  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

toward  the  full  comprehension  of  the  glories  of  the 
Englishman  ! 

One  German  setting  of  a  Shakespearian  lyric  may 
be  here  mentioned  with  some  degree  of  detail,  and 
for  several  reasons  ;  it  is  a  perfect  example  (both  in 
its  words,  already  quoted,  and  in  its  music)  of  the 
morning  song,  the  opposite  of  the  serenade ;  it  is 
one  of  the  poet's  most  cheery  lyrics ;  and  it  may 
illustrate  how  the  poet  inspires  the  musician, — how 
the  spirit  of  poetry  transmutes  itself  into  music. 

It  was  on  a  pleasant  Sunday  morning,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1826,  that  Schubert,  in  accordance  with  his 
custom,  was  taking  a  stroll  (a  Spaziergang)  through 
the  suburbs  of  Vienna  with  a  party  of  his  boon  com- 
panions. They  had  been  at  Potzleindorf  and  were 
returning  to  the  city  through  Wahring.  As  they 
were  passing  through  the  latter  suburb,  Schubert 
spied  his  friend  Tieze  sitting  at  a  table  in  one  of  the 
garden-restaurants  which  are  so  numerous  in  Austria's 
capital.  It  was  a  little  establishment  bearing  the 
name  "  Zum  Biersack."  In  his  usual  light-hearted 
way  Schubert  suggested  that  they  all  turn  in  and 
take  breakfast  together  with  Tieze.  All  assenting, 
the  gay  party  was  soon  gathered  around  the  table. 
Tieze  had  with  him  a  volume  of  poetry,  and  Schubert, 
ever  on  the  hunt  for  lyrical  subjects,  seized  the  book 
and  began  to  turn  its  leaves.  Suddenly  he  became 
interested  in  one  of  the  poems,  and  read  and  re-read 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  313 

it.  The  volume  was  Shakespeare's  lyrics  translated 
into  German,  the  poem  was  "  Hark,  Hark,  the  Lark." 
After  a  little  while  (for  Schubert's  composition  was 
ever  spontaneous)  he  spoke,  saying,  "What  a  pity 
that  I  have  no  music-paper!  I  have  just  the  melody 
for  this  poem  ! "  Doppler,  one  of  the  party,  was 
equal  to  the  emergency ;  drawing  the  lines  of  the 
musical  staff  on  the  back  of  the  bill  of  fare,  he  handed 
the  improvised  music-paper  to  the  composer.  On  the 
back  of  that  bill  of  fare,  while  waiting  for  his  break- 
fast, amid  the  hurly-burly  of  an  open-air  restaurant, 
Schubert  composed  "  Hark,  Hark,  the  Lark,"  a  song 
which  has  remained  a  classic  ever  since.  Nor  was  it 
changed  in  any  degree  from  this  first  improvised 
sketch,  for  Schubert  was  notorious  for  his  careless- 
ness in  the  matter  of  revision  ;  he  almost  invariably 
gave  his  first  draught  of  any  composition  to  his  pub- 
lisher, and  it  is  not  stretching  the  imagination  to 
suppose  that  he  did  no  more  than  copy  the  music  in 
this  case.  As  the  words  have  already  been  quoted,  it 
is  unnecessary  to  reproduce  them  here. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  end  this  chapter  without 
speaking  of  the  great  achievements  of  English  com- 
posers in  the  Shakespearian  field.  Even  at  a  time 
when  England  did  not  fully  appreciate  its  greatest 
poet  (the  time  of  Charles  II.,  for  example),  the  com- 
posers seem  to  have  understood  what  a  mine  of  poetry 
was  here  waiting  to  be  wedded  with  tones.     Dr.  John 


314  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

Wilson  ■  was  the  first  to  enter  the  field  with  worthy 
music,  but  an  infinitely  greater  composer  soon  fol- 
lowed, England's  greatest  musical  genius,  —  Henry 
Purcell.  This  great  master's  setting  of  the  lyrics 
and  other  short  poems  of  Shadwell's  version  of  "  The 
Tempest "  was  the  greatest  tribute  to  Shakespeare 
up  to  the  time  (1690),  and  the  settings  of  "Come 
unto  these  yellow  sands  "  and  "  Full  fathom  five " 
have  never  been  excelled.  It  is  a  pity  that  Shadwell's 
version  departed  in  a  wretched  manner  from  the  true 
Shakespearian  lines,  and  several  of  Purcell 's  songs 
have  therefore  a  spurious  text.  Of  the  "  Macbeth  " 
music,  attributed  to  Purcell,  we  shall  speak  in  the 
final  chapter  of  this  work. 

We  venture  to  turn  aside  from  our  Shakespearian 
investigation  for  an  instant,  to  defend  the  memory  of 
the  first  musician  who  adequately  transmuted  Shake- 
speare's words  into  tones.  Purcell  is  accused  of  dying 
of  a  disease  brought  on  by  a  drunken  orgie  ;  this 
would  mean  a  very  acute  and  feverish  malady.  A 
simple  statement  will  set  this  accusation  at  rest : 
Purcell  composed  music  during  his  last  illness  !  The 
present  writer  is  in  possession  of  a  composition  (evi- 
dently contemporaneous)  which  is  entitled  "  Rosy 
Bowers,"  and  claims  to  be  "  the  last  song  that  was 

1  Richard  Johnson,  contemporaneous  with  Shakespeare,  who  set 
parts  of  "  The  Tempest,"  also  deserves  mention  here,  for  chrono- 
logical reasons,  chiefly. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  315 

set  by  the  late  celebrated  Mr.  Henry  Purcell,  it  being 
in  his  sickness." 

Next  to  Purcell  one  must  place  the  famous  Doctor 
Arne,  in  giving  a  list  of  eminent  Shakespearian  com- 
posers. His  setting  of  the  musical  parts  of  "As  You 
Like  It,"  in  1740,  will  probably  never  be  excelled. 

Stevens,  Linley,  Bishop,  Haydn,  Horn,  and  numer- 
ous others  might  be  mentioned  in  connection  with 
the  lyrical  field  of  Shakespeare,  but  besides  these 
there  was  a  still  wider  sphere  of  composition  insti- 
gated by  the  poet,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  final  chapter 
of  this  volume. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Children  as  Singers — Shakespeare's  Musical  Stage-directions  — 
The  "Chorus"  —  Musical  Interludes  —  Music  after  Plays  —Fi- 
nal Jigs  —  Trumpet  Signals  —  Drums  —  Bells  —  Sennet  — 
Pageants  upon  Stage  —  Historical  Music. 

In  the  Shakespearian  theatre  the  performances 
generally  began  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
and  the  prices  of  admission  varied  from  twopence  to 
about  sixpence  to  the  pit,  and  from  about  a  shilling 
to  half  a  crown  to  the  boxes.  The  musicians  sat  in 
a  balcony  and  not  in  front  of  the  stage  as  is  the  pres- 
ent custom.  Many  of  the  ultra-fashionables  sat  or 
reclined  upon  the  stage  itself,  for  which  privilege 
they  paid  extra.  In  judging  of  the  vocal  music  which 
Shakespeare  introduced  in  his  plays,  it  may  be  im- 
portant to  remember  that  every  part  was  sung  by 
men  or  boys,  no  female  appearing  upon  the  English 
stage  before  the  civil  war.  The  treble  parts  were 
sustained  by  boys  who  were  well  trained  for  acting 
as  well  as  singing.  Regarding  these  children  and 
their  singing,  we  can  quote  Shakespeare  himself,  for 
he  gives  a  criticism  of  their  work  in  the  second  scene 
of  the  second  act  of  "  Hamlet :  " 

316 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  3  I J 

"  Rosencrantz.  To  think,  my  lord,  if  you  delight  not  in 
man,  what  lenten  entertainment  the  players  shall  receive  from 
you :  we  coted  them  on  the  way ;  and  hither  are  they  coming, 
to  offer  you  service. 

Hamlet.  He  that  plays  the  king,  shall  be  welcome;  his 
majesty  shall  have  tribute  of  me :  the  adventurous  knight  shall 
use  his  foil  and  target:  the  lover  shall  not  sigh  gratis;  the 
humourous  man  shall  end  his  part  in  peace ;  the  clown  shall 
make  those  laugh,  whose  lungs  are  tickled  o'  the  sere  ;  and  the 
lady  shall  say  her  mind  freely,  or  the  blank  verse  shall  halt 
for  't.  —  What  players  are  they? 

Rosencj-antz.  Even  those  you  were  wont  to  take  such  de- 
light in,  the  tragedians  of  the  city. 

Ha,77ilet.  How  chances  it,  they  travel  ?  their  residence,  both 
in  reputation  and  profit,  was  better  both  ways. 

Rosencrantz.  I  think  their  inhibition  comes  by  the  means 
of  the  late  innovation. 

Hamlet.  Do  they  hold  the  same  estimation  they  did  when 
I  was  in  the  city  ?     Are  they  so  followed  ? 

Rosencrantz.     No,  indeed  they  are  not. 

Hamlet.    How  comes  it  ?    Do  they  grow  rusty  ? 

Rosencrantz.  Nay,  their  endeavour  keeps  in  the  wonted 
pace :  but  there  is,  sir,  an  aiery  of  children,  little  eyases,  that 
cry  out  on  the  top  of  question,  and  are  most  tyrannically  clapped 
for  't:  these  are  now  the  fashion;  and  so  berattle  the  common 
stages,  (so  they  call  them,)  that  many,  wearing  rapiers,  are  afraid 
of  goose  quills,  and  dare  scarce  come  thither. 

Hamlet.  What,  are  they  children  ?  who  maintains  them  ? 
how  are  they  escoted  ?  Will  they  pursue  the  quality  no  longer 
than  they  can  sing?  will  they  not  say  afterwards,  if  they  should 
grow  themselves  to  common  players,  (as  it  is  most  like,  if  their 
means  are  no  better)  their  writers  do  them  wrong,  to  make  them 
exclaim  against  their  own  succession. 

Rosencrantz.  Faith,  1here  has  been  much  to  do  on  both 
sides ;  and  the  nation  holds  it  no  sin,  to  tarre  them  on  to  con- 


31 8  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

troversy ;  there  was  for  awhile,  no  money  bid  for  argument^ 
unless  the  poet  and  the  player  went  to  cuffs  in  the  question. 

Hamlet.     Is  it  possible  ? 

Guildenstern.  O,  there  has  been  much  throwing  about  of 
brains  ? 

Hamlet.     Do  the  boys  carry  it  away  ? 

Rosencrantz.  Ay,  that  they  do,  my  lord ;  Hercules  and  his 
load  too." 

It  would  seem  evident  from  this  that  Shakespeare 
scarcely  approved  of  children  as  actors,  and  he  inti- 
mates that  the  boys  are  only  tolerated  because  they 
can  sing ;  the  line,  "  Will  they  pursue  the  quality 
no  longer  than  they  can  sing  ?  "  would  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  when  their  voice  changed  they  might  be 
regarded  as  useless.  That  the  children  sometimes 
gave  plays  by  themselves  is  also  indicated  in  the  above 
scene,  but  is  not  to  our  purpose ;  we  may  suppose, 
since  these  juvenile  performances  were  given  by 
the  choir-boys  of  St.  Paul's,  Westminster,  the  Chapel 
Royal,  etc.,  that  the  singing  was  the  important  part. 

All  performances  of  this  epoch  were  preceded  by 
three  flourishes  of  trumpets,  exactly  as  the  Wagnerian 
performances  at  Bayreuth  have  been  ushered  in  during 
more  recent  times.  After  the  third  flourish  the  cur- 
tain was  drawn  to  the  two  sides,  from  the  center,  and 
the  prologue  was  spoken.  The  so-called  "  Chorus," 
was,  of  course,  not  a  musical  gathering,  but  a  single 
character  who  explained  the  play,  after  the  manner 
of  the  ancient  Greek  choruses,  although  the  Hellenic 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  319 

chorus  chanted,   while  the  Elizabethan  one  merely 
spoke  his  lines. 

Between  the  acts  dancing  and  singing,  or  both 
combined,  were  introduced.  After  the  play  the  clown 
came  to  the  front  and  gave  a  jig,  generally  to  his  own 
accompaniment  upon  pipe  or  tabor.  Sometimes  he 
had  an  accompaniment  played  for  him,  in  which  case 
he  generally  sang  as  he  danced.  A  clear  instance  of 
this  sort  can  be  found  in  "  Twelfth  Night,"  after  the 
play  is  ended,  when  the  clown  enters  and  sings  the 
following : 

"  SONG. 

Clown. 

When  that  I  was  and  a  tiny  little  boy, 
With  hey,  ho,  the  wind  and  the  rain, 
A  foolish  thing  was  but  a  toy, 
For  the  rain  it  raineth  every  day. 

But  when  I  came  to  man's  estate, 
With  hey,  ho,  the  wind  and  the  rain, 

'Gainst  knave  and  thief  men  shut  their  gate, 
For  the  rain  it  raineth  every  day. 

But  when  I  came,  alas  !  to  wive, 

With  hey,  ho,  the  wind  and  the  rain, 

By  swaggering  could  I  never  thrive, 
For  the  rain  it  raineth  every  day. 

But  when  I  came  unto  my  bed, 

With  hey,  hr>,  the  wind  and  the  rain, 

With  toss-pots  still  had  drunken  head, 
For  the  rain  it  raineth  every  day. 


320  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

A  great  while  ago  the  world  begun, 
With  hey,  ho,  the  wind  and  the  rain, 

But  that's  all  one,  our  play  is  done, 

And  we'll  strive  to  please  you  every  day. 

[Exit* 

Here  we  have  a  song  entirely  apart  from  the  action. 
Shakespeare  had  made  this  clown  especially  musical 
and  had  probably  chosen  some  capable  singer  for  the 
part,  for  he  not  only  gives  the  character  a  prominent 
share  in  the  catch-singing,  but  adds  earnest  songs  to 
its  repertoire  during  the  play.  He  possibly,  there- 
fore, desired  something  a  little  better  than  the  usual 
jig  at  the  end,  in  this  case,  and  gave  the  clown  an 
additional  chance  to  capture  public  favour  with  his 
final  song.  It  is,  however,  as  extraneous  to  the  action 
as  the  jig  itself  would  have  been. 

Some  commentators  believe  the  song  to  be  by  some 
other  hand  than  Shakespeare's,  and  there  is  inherent 
probability  in  the  belief  ;  for  it  may  have  been  allowed 
to  the  favoured  actor  to  choose  some  favourite  song 
of  his  own  repertoire  wherewith  to  capture  his  audi- 
ence. Besides  this  assumption,  we  find  an  additional 
bit  of  inferential  proof  in  the  fact  that  Shakespeare 
parodied  the  song  in  "King  Lear"  (written  a  half- 
dozen  years  later)  with  — 

"  He  that  has  a  little  tiny  wit,  — 

With  heigh,  ho,  the  wind  and  the  rain,  — . 
Must  make  content  with  his  fortune's  fit ; 
For  the  rain  it  raineth  every  day." 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 


321 


And  Shakespeare  was  not  in  the  habit  of  parodying 
himself,  however  much  he  delighted  in  twisting  the 
thoughts  of  others. 

As  the  traditional  tune  of  this  song  exists,  we 
present  it,  together  with  Chappell's  note  that  it  is 
said  to  have  been  the  composition  of  a  person  named 
Fielding. 


"WHEN  THAT  I  WAS  A  LITTLE  TINY  BOY." 
In  moderate  time. 


%=i 


'0 #- 


SB 


=t-4 


r- 


m 


When  that  I   was  a     lit-  tie  ti  -  ny  Boy  With  a  heigh  ho !  the 


*=* 


?*r^ 


!       1       !       I         1  t       L_ 


Wind  and  the  Rain,  A  foolish  thing  was  but    a    Toy  For  the 


*  r  n  n 


rain  it  raineth   ev'  -   ry     Day  With  a  heigh     ho !    The 


322  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


Wind  and  the  Rain  and  the  rain  it  raineth    ev1  -  ry      Day, 


In  connection  with  the  above  statement  of  the 
privileges  of  the  clown,  it  may  be  added  that  this 
favoured  personage  was  permitted,  and  even  expected, 
to  add  "gags  "  and  interpolations  to  the  play,  and  he 
sometimes  even  engaged  in  improvised  repartee  with 
the  audience.  Steevens  gives  a  quotation  from  Stowe 
which  speaks  of  two  of  the  "  queen's  servants  "  (z.  e. 
actors)  as  of  "extemporall  witte."     Malone  says  : 

"  The  clown  often  addressed  the  audience  in  the  middle  of 
the  play  and  entered  into  a  contest  of  raillery  and  sarcasm 
with  such  of  the  audience  as  chose  to  engage  with  him." 

One  can  find  an  allusion  to  this  habit  in  "  Hamlet " 
(Act  iii.  Sc.  2).1 

The  stage-directions  of  Shakespeare,  so  far  as 
they  are  connected  with  music,  are  quite  numerous. 
"  Alarums,"  rolls  of  drums,  are  called  for  most 
freely,  especially  in  the  historical  plays,  and  very 
often  in  connection  with  "excursions,"  which  were 

1  See  also  the  scene  at  the  end  of  Act  iv.  of  "  Romeo  and  Juliet," 
which  was  probably  written  by  Shakespeare  to  display  Will  Kempe. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  323 

simply  sallies  or  skirmishes.  "  Flourishes "  were 
simply  fanfares,  or  a  series  of  open  tones  upon  the 
natural  trumpets.  In  this  connection  we  may  state 
that  the  only  trumpet  known  in  the  Shakespearian 
days  was  the  natural  instrument,  without  keys,  the 
keyed  instrument  being  an  invention  of  the  nine- 
teenth century ;  there  were,  however,  excellent 
trumpeters  in  the  Elizabethan  epoch,  for  the  in- 
strument was  found  in  all  the  royal  bands,  and  was 
the  appurtenance  of  every  herald,  the  ambassador 
to  sovereigns.  The  art  of  playing  trumpet,  there- 
fore, was  held  to  be  a  "  heroic "  one,  and  in  Con- 
tinental Europe,  and  in  some  degree  in  England, 
it  was  prized  as  a  "  gentlemanly  "  accomplishment. 
In  Germany,  at  this  time,  a  guild  of  trumpeters 
existed,  which  claimed  many  noblemen  among  its 
members,  and  even  the  Duke  of  Weimar  entered 
its  ranks  as  late  as  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

Twice  does  Shakespeare  change  from  the  flourish 
of  trumpets  to  a  "flourish  of  cornets."  The  "cor- 
net "  demanded  here  is  by  no  means  the  instrument 
now  known  by  that  name,  which  was  invented  less 
than  a  century  ago,  but  meant  a  wooden  instrument 
with  a  trumpet-like  mouthpiece,  an  instrument  which 
afterward  gave  way  to  the  oboe.  Sometimes  the 
larger  cornets  were  made  of  metal,  but  this  was 
rather  the  exception  than  the  rule.     The  cornet  had 


324  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

holes  along  its  tube,  as  the  common  flute  has  to-day, 
and  Mersennus,  writing  in  1636,  speaks  of  the  wooden 
serpent  as  the  true  bass  of  the  cornet.  Artusi,  in  his 
work  on  "The  Imperfections  of  Modern  Music" 
(Venice,  1600),  says  that  the  tone  of  the  instrument 
depends  greatly  upon  the  manner  of  tongueing  it, 
and  gives  many  rules  regarding  it.     He  adds  : 

"  To  give  the  best  tone,  the  performer  on  the  cornet  should 
endeavour  to  imitate  the  human  voice ;  for  no  other  instrument 
is  so  difficult  to  obtain  excellence  on  as  this." 

Girolamo  da  Udine  is  spoken  of  as  the  greatest 
performer  upon  this  uncouth  instrument,  which  seems 
to  have  occupied  a  position  midway  between  the  brass 
and  the  wood-wind  instruments.  The  fact  that  Shake- 
speare sometimes  calls  for  "hautboys"  (oboes)  in 
such  flourishes,  only  emphasises  the  relationship  of 
the  two  instruments.  Sometimes  oboes  and  trum- 
pets were  sounded  together  in  the  flourishes. 

The  "  sennet "  must  have  been  much  the  same  as 
a  flourish,  and  probably  was  originally  called  "son- 
net," taking  its  rise,  as  was  the  case  with  "  sonata," 
from  "  sonare"  to  sound. 

Most  interesting  among  the  trumpet-signals  are 
those  called  "tuckets."  Shakespeare  uses  the  word 
but  rarely,  yet  generally  with  some  significance.  For 
example,  in  the  final  scene  of  "The  Merchant  of 
Venice,"  we  find  the  following : 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  325 

"  [A  tucket  sounds. 
Lorenzo.      \To  Portia']  Your  husband  is  at  hand,  I  hear 
his  trumpet." 

Twice  at  the  entrance  of  Mont  joy,  the  French  her- 
ald, in  "  Henry  V.,"  does  the  tucket  sound.  Occa- 
sionally, too,  we  have  a  trumpet-call  which  must 
have  been  a  tucket,  as  will  be  seen  presently.  In 
"King  Lear"  (Act  ii.  Sc.  1),  Gloster  says,  after 
the  stage-direction  "  Trumpets  within"  "  Hark !  the 
duke's  trumpets."  In  the  same  play  (Act  ii.  Sc.  4) 
we  find  the  same  stage-direction,  and  after  the  trum- 
pet-call Cornwall  asks,  "  What  trumpet's  that  ? " 
whereupon  Regan  replies,  "  I  know  't ;  my  sister's." 
And  other  instances  of  such  recognition  of  tuckets, 
whether  marked  so,  or  simply  called  "  trumpets," 
might  be  cited.  ■  The  "  tucket  "  was,  therefore,  a 
personal  trumpet-call,  which  was  as  recognisable  as 
the  private  flourish  which  a  gentleman  might  use 
with  his  signature  in  the  sixteenth  century.  It  was 
a  private  trumpet-signal,  such  as  Wagner  causes 
Siegfried  to  use  in  the  last  two  operas  of  the  Trilogy 
("  Siegfried  "  and  "  Gbtterdammerung  ") ;  and  the 
word  probably  was  derived  from  "  toccare,"  to 
touch,  i.  e.  something  requiring  skill  of  touch,  or 
technique.  Once  we  meet  with  the  word  in  the 
Shakespearian  text,  ^nstead  of  as  stage-direction ; 
in  "  Henry  V."  (Act  iv.  Sc.  2)  the  Constable  of 
France  gives  the  order: 


326  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

"  Sound  the  tucket-sonance,  and  the  note  to  mount,"  — 

and  here  again  we  have  the  tucket  in  the  nature  of  a 
definite  signal ;  our  cavalry  bugle-signals  are  practically 
"tuckets"  in  the  sense  of  having  some  special  and 
definite  meaning. 

Possibly  the  "  tucket "  was  a  true  historical  touch, 
for  it  is  certain  that  the  old  heralds  used  many  a  pri- 
vate signal  of  this  kind.  There  is  another  historical 
touch  in  the  play  last  quoted,  connected  with  music ; 
it  is  where  the  king,  after  the  victory  of  Agincourt, 
says,  — 

"  Let  there  be  sung  Non  Nobis,  and  Te  Deum,"  — 

which  is  practically  what  the  king  did  say,  after  his 
victory,  for  when  all  England  was  pouring  adulation 
upon  him  he  commanded  that  thanks  be  given  to 
God  instead  ;  and  many  sacred  musical  works  followed 
this  behest. 

Occasionally  bells  were  used  upon  the  stage,  if  we 
may  trust  the  many  Shakespearian  allusions  to  them, 
but  these  are  scarcely  to  be  classed  as  musical  in- 
struments, although  Shakespeare  sometimes  draws 
delightful  musical  metaphors  from  them,  as  for  ex- 
ample in  "  Hamlet "  (Act  iii.  Sc.  i),  where  Ophelia 
speaks  of  Hamlet  thus  : 

"  Ophelia.  O,  what  a  noble  mind  is  here  o'erthrown ! 
The  courtier's,  soldier's,  scholar's,  eye,  tongue,  sword  ? 
The  expectancy  and  rose  of  the  fair  state, 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  $2? 

The  glass  of  fashion,  and  the  mould  of  form, 
The  observed  of  all  observers  !  quite,  quite  down! 
And  I,  of  ladies  most  deject  and  wretched, 
That  suck'd  the  honey  of  his  music  vows, 
Now  see  that  noble  and  most  sovereign  reason, 
Like  sweet  bells  jangled,  out  of  tune  and  harsh ; 
That  unmatch'd  form  and  feature  of  blown  youth, 
Blasted  with  ecstasy :  O,  wo  is  me  ! 
To  have  seen  what  I  have  seen,  see  what  I  see ! " 

There  is  one  phrase  here  in  connection  with  music, 
which  leads  to  an  interesting  bit  of  etymology,  the 
line  regarding  "  the  honey  of  his  music  vows  ;  "  Shake- 
speare used  the  word  "  honey  "  about  twice  as  often  as 
the  word  "sugar,"  yet  he  was  probably  one  of  the 
first  to  make  copious  use  of  the  latter,  both  as  noun 
and  adjective.  The  introduction  of  refined  sugar  into 
England  from  Venice,  about  a  century  before  Shake- 
speare's time,  gave  the  poets  a  new  adjective,  and 
the  people  toothache.  Hentzner  (in  his  "  Itinerary," 
1598)  speaks  of  the  black  teeth  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 

M  Next  came  the  Queen,  in  the  65th  year  of  her  age,  as  we 
were  told,  very  majestic,  her  face  oblong,  fair,  but  wrinkled ; 
her  eyes  small  yet  black  and  pleasant :  her  nose  hooked,  her 
lips  narrow,  and  her  teeth  black,  a  defect  the  English  seem 
subject  to  from  their  too  great  use  of  sugar.  She  wore  false 
hair,  and  that  red." 

It  is  to  be  noted  tha^Shakespeare  occasionally  uses 
funeral  music,  and  that  the  first  part  of  "  King  Henry 
VI."  begins  with  a  dead  march. 


328  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

The  pageants,  which  Shakespeare  occasionally  intro- 
duced into  his  plays,  were  always  very  popular  with 
Elizabethan  audiences,  who  were  beginning  to  culti- 
vate a  taste  for  masques,  a  form  of  entertainment 
still  more  popular  in  the  Jacobean  reign. 

We  have  already  fully  described  the  masques  and 
need  only  state  here  that  the  masques  in  "Henry 
VIII.,"  in  "Timon  of  Athens,"  and  the  procession 
in  the  former  play,  attracted  many  of  the  public  who 
could  not  rise  to  the  other  and  greater  glories  of  the 
poet.  The  allusions  to  masques,  and  their  actual 
introduction,  are  fairly  frequent  in  the  plays,  and 
the  character  of  such  entertainments  is  suggested 
clearly  enough  by  the  following  excerpt  from  "  Mid- 
summer-Night's Dream  "  (Act  v.  Sc.  i) : 

"  Theseus.  Say,  what  abridgement  have  you  for  this  evening  ? 
What  mask  ?  what  music  ?  How  shall  we  beguile 
The  lazy  time,  if  not  with  some  delight? 

Philostrate.     There  is  a  brief,  how  many  sports  are  ripe ; 
Make  choice  of  which  your  highness  will  see  first. 

[Giving  a  paper. 
Theseus.     [Reads']  '  The  battle  with  the  Centaurs,  to  be 
sung, 
By  an  Athenian  eunuch,  to  the  harp.' 
We'll  none  of  that:  that  have  I  told  my  love, 
In  glory  of  my  kinsman  Hercules. 
'  The  riot  of  the  tipsy  Bacchanals, 
Tearing  the  Thracian  singer  in  their  rage.' 
That  is  an  old  device ;  and  it  was  play'd 
When  I  from  Thebes  came  last  a  conqueror. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  329 

•  The  thrice  three  Muses  mourning  for  the  death 
Of  learning,  late  deceased  in  beggary.' 
That  is  some  satire,  keen  and  critical, 
Not  sorting  with  a  nuptial  ceremony. 
1 A  tedious  brief  scene  of  young  Pyramus, 
And  his  love  Thisbe ;  very  tragical  mirth.' 
Merry  and  tragical  ?  tedious  and  brief  ? 
That,  is  hot  ice,  and  wonderous  strange  snow. 
How  shall  we  find  the  concord  of  this  discord  ?  " 

In  the  above  scene  there  is  a  mystical  line  which 
is  confessedly  inaccurate,  the  allusion  to  "  wonderous 
strange  snow."  It  is  barely  possible  that  (to  carry 
on  the  contradictions)  "wonderous  rain-snow"  may 
have  been  meant,  although  the  true  reading  can 
probably  never  be  recovered. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Musical  Influence  of  Shakespeare  —  Various  Kinds  of  Music 
Inspired  by  Shakespeare's  Plays  —  Influence  on  Wagner — ■ 
Berlioz  and  his  Shakespearian  Subjects  —  Conclusion. 

It  may  be  regarded  as  an  axiom  that  great  poets, 
whether  musical  themselves  or  not,1  always  lead  to 
great  music.  If  a  poet  arises,  in  any  age  or  nation, 
who  is  dear  to  the  people,  there  is  certain  to  follow  a 
tone-poet  who  will  set  music  to  the  words  that  have 
exerted  such  power,  and  thus  bring  them  still  closer 
to  the  popular  heart.  Thus  Goethe  led  to  Schubert, 
and  Heine  found  his  fullest  glory  in  the  works  of 
Schumann  and  Robert  Franz. 

In  the  case  of  Shakespeare  the  influence  was  more 
far-reaching  and  was  exerted  upon  composers  of  three 
centuries  and  of  all  the  civilised  countries  of  the 
earth.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  no  man,  out- 
side of  the  art,  ever  inspired  as  much,  or  one-quarter 
as  much,  music  as  Shakespeare  has  done.  Goethe's 
"  Faust "  has  brought  forth  very  much  music,  but 
Shakespeare's  musical  influence  is  not  confined  to  a 

1  Tennyson,  for  example,  was  not  musical,  yet  his  "  Break,  Break, 
Break !  "  has  led  to  many  songs,  and  many  other  of  his  poems  have 
inspired  much  music. 

33° 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  33  I 

single  play,  for  each  of  his  plays  has  inspired  its  own 
especial  music. 

Barrett  Wendell,  in  his  charming  essay  on  Shake- 
speare, dwells  constantly  (in  a  dozen  different  places) 
on  the  musical  quality  of  Shakespeare's  plays,  and 
believes  them  to  be  the  half-way  house  on  the  road 
to  opera.  He  compares  (p.  78  et  seq.)  "Henry  VI." 
to  serious  opera,  "Love's  Labour's  Lost"  to  opera 
comique,  and  calls  (p.  122)  the  quartette  of  lamen- 
tation over  the  unconscious  Juliet,  —  "  fugue-like  ;  " 
Mercutio's  "  Queen  Mab  "  he  likens  to  an  interpolated 
song  in  a  modern  comedy,  and  he  gives  many  other 
instances  of  poetry  and  music  coming  into  closest 
kinship  in  the  works  of  Shakespeare. 

It  may  be  pardoned  us  if,  in  the  presentation  of 
this  branch  of  our  topic,  we  become  in  some  degree 
catalogic.  "  The  Tempest "  has  been  set  fourteen 
times  as  an  opera,  the  Germans  having  been  especially 
attracted  toward  this  subject.  Since  Doctor  Arne's 
first  setting  (and  we  do  not  count  Purcell's  setting  of 
Shadwell's  arrangement  of  the  play  in  the  above 
list),  French,  Russians,  and  Italians,  as  well  as 
Germans,  have  turned  the  subject  into  opera.  John 
K.  Paine,  most  eminent  pf  American  composers,  has 
built  a  symphonic  poem  upon  the  theme,  and  Am- 
broise  Thomas  has  turned  it  into  a  ballet,  in  which 
Ferdinand  and  Miranda  caper,  and  Caliban  crawls,  to 
Terpsichorean  rhythms  ! 


332  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

The  "  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor "  has  been  less 
copiously  set,  but  has  led  to  music  of  higher  char- 
acter than  the  preceding.  Among  the  eight  operatic 
settings  of  the  subject  one  may  give  precedence  to 
Verdi's  "Falstaff,"  which  has  admirably  caught  the. 
Shakespearian  spirit  and  possesses  a  libretto  written 
in  the  truest  poetic  spirit  by  Arrigo  Bofto.  The 
delightful  setting  by  Nicolai  presents  most  dainty 
music,  and  its  overture  is  one  of  the  gems  of  light 
opera,  but  it  does  not  reach  the  height  of  the  fore- 
going work. 

"  Measure  for  Measure  "  has  received  but  a  single 
operatic  setting  of  any  note,  and  this  setting,  although 
important  to  the  musical  historian,  is  never  performed 
upon  the  stage.  It  was  composed  by  Richard  Wagner 
in  his  younger  days.  The  work  seems  not  to  have 
been  in  the  Shakespearian  spirit  and  to  have  had  no 
very  great  merit,  but  it  is  interesting  to  know  that 
the  greatest  operatic  composer'  was  in  some  degree 
inspired  by  Shakespeare.  Nor  is  "  Das  Liebesver- 
bot  "  (for  so  Wagner  entitled  his  second  opera)  the 
only  case  where  the  great  composer  was  moved  by 
Shakespeare,  for  we  find  him  studying  the  works  of 
the  English  dramatist  (thanks  to  the  excellent  Ger- 
man translations)  assiduously,  at  the  beginning  of 
his  career ;  a  good  part  of  Wagner's  dramatic  instinct 
may  be  traced  to  his  early  study  of  Shakespeare. 

Sir  Henry  R.  Bishop,  who  drew  many  of  his  texts 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  333 

from  Shakespeare,  gave  the  only  tolerable  setting  of 
the  "  Comedy  of  Errors  "  to  the  world ;  it  does  not, 
at  present,  hold  the  stage. 

"  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew "  has  achieved  one 
important  operatic  setting  (not  to  speak  of  an  almost 
unknown  Spanish  setting  of  the  eighteenth  century), 
for  it  introduced  a  musical  genius  to  the  world,  — 
Hermann  Goetz.  This  German  setting  ("  Die  Wider- 
spenstigen  Zahmung  ")  is  not  as  dramatic  as  it  might 
be,  but  is  so  delightfully  melodic  and  so  richly  har- 
monised that  it  is  likely  to  become  a  standard  work 
of  the  modern  operatic  repertoire. 

Max  Bruch,  also  German,  gave  the  only  setting  of 
"Winter's  Tale,"  under  the  title  of  * Hermione."  It 
contains  some  excellent  music,  but  has  not  received 
sufficiently  dramatic  treatment  to  maintain  its  place 
in  the  operatic  repertoire  of  to-day. 

"  Midsummer-Night's  Dream  "  had  its  chief  musi- 
cal result  in  Mendelssohn's  incidental  music.  As  a 
boy  of  seventeen,  Mendelssohn  brought  forth  an  over- 
ture to  this  play,  that  may  be  called  the  most  dainty 
bit  of  musical  humour  in  the  entire  repertoire.  In 
this  bit  of  programme  music  one  hears  Titania  and 
her  train  and  the  tricksy  Puck,  upon  the  violins,  the 
braying  of  the  "translated"  Bottom,  in  his  asinine 
character,  upon  the  bassoon,  and  his  subsequent 
snoring  most  graphically  depicted  upon  the  ophi- 
cleide.      Years   afterward,    Mendelssohn    was    com- 


334  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

missioned  by  the  King  of  Prussia  to  write  more 
music  to  the  Shakespearian  text,  but  the  high  level 
of  the  overture  could  not  be  attained  to  order. 
Yet  one  number  of  the  music  is  imperishable ;  it 
has  been  maliciously  stated  that  the  "  Marseillaise " 
and  Mendelssohn's  "  Wedding  March M  have  led 
more  people  into  combat  than  any  other  music  in 
the  world,  and  the  latter  was  inspired  by  Shake- 
speare's play.  There  have  been  a  half-dozen  set- 
tings of  "  Midsummer-Night's  Dream  "  as  an  opera. 

"  Twelfth  Night  "  has  been  set  by  Arne  and  Bishop, 
but  is  not  heard  as  an  opera  nowadays. 

"  Richard  III."  has  been  set  three  times  as  an 
opera,  but  has  also  vanished  from  the  operatic  boards. 
Probably  the  best  musical  outcome  of  this  play  exists 
in  the  shape  of  an  overture  by  Volkmann.  This 
overture  shows  a  keener  appreciation  of  Shakespeare's 
hero  than  of  the  facts  of  history,  for  at  the  end,  where 
the  composer  pictures  Bosworth  field,  the  tune  of 
"  The  Campbells  are  Comin' "  accompanies  the 
slaughter ;  a  Scottish  tune  upon  an  English  battle- 
field, and  in  a  combat  which  occurred  about  a  century 
before  the  melody  was  written  !  Smetana  has  written 
a  "  Symphonic  poem  "  on  "  Richard  III." 

Among  the  histories,  the  two  parts  of  "King 
Henry  IV."  have  possessed  the  most  attraction  for 
librettists  and  composers.  They  have  melted  the  two 
parts  into  one  and  have  made  Prince  Hal  the  hero. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  335 

Only  Herold's  version,  in  two  acts,  seems  to  have 
remained,  of  the  seven  operatic  settings  of  this  theme. 
As  the  other  six  composers  were  Italians  (with  the 
exception  of  Garcia),  it  is  natural  to  find  the  title 
running  "  La  Gioventu  di  Enrico  V." 

"  Henry  VIII."  has  a  single  setting,  but  a  very 
good  one.  It  was  St.  Saens  who  introduced  this 
theme  to  the  operatic  stage.  It  is  full  of  good  music, 
and  is  finely  orchestrated,  but  swerves  somewhat  from 
Shakespearian  lines,  altering  the  plot  unnecessarily. 
One  would  imagine  that  the  composer  would  make 
the  most  of  the  two  pageants  introduced  by  Shake- 
speare into  this  play,  —  the  masque  and  the  great 
procession ;  but  St.  Saens  discards  them  both  and 
gives  instead  a  ballet,  in  the  "  Pare  du  Richmon  "  (!) 
in  which  Scottish  and  other  un-English  caperings  are 
introduced. 

"  Coriolanus  "  has  had  a  host  of  operatic  settings 
by  old  Italian  composers,  none  of  which  have  held 
the  stage.  Beethoven's  overture  of  "  Coriolanus  " 
does  not  deal  with  the  Shakespearian  play,  but  is 
founded  on  Collin's  tragedy  of  the  same  name.  When 
Eleonora  von  Breuning  inducted  Beethoven  into  the 
delights  of  poetry,  she  seems  not  to  have  imbued  him 
with  that  love  of  Shakespeare  which  might  have 
resulted  in  giving  tcrthe  poet  his  greatest  musical 
settings. 

"  Macbeth  "  has  been  set  many  times,  and  from  the 


336  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Shakespearian  century.  The  incidental  music  to  Sir 
William  Davenant's  amplification  of  "  Macbeth," 
reputed  to  be  by  Matthew  Locke,  is  now  more  gener- 
ally believed  to  be  by  the  great  Purcell.  Cummings, 
in  his  "  Life  of  Purcell,"  gives  all  the  evidence  rela- 
tive to  this  subject,  and  even  those  who  do  not  agree 
with  the  conclusion  that  the  youth  Purcell  wrote  the 
music,  will  scarcely  be  inclined  to  attribute  it  to 
Locke.  The  Germans  took  up  the  tragedy  very 
early,  and  in  1787  J.  F.  Reichardt  set  incidental 
music  to  Burger's  translation  of  the  play.  The 
famous  Spohr  wrote  music  to  the  tragedy,  all  of 
which  is  lost  with  the  exception  of  the  overture,  and 
even  that  is  rarely  heard  at  present.  Weyse  pub- 
lished some  excellent  incidental  music  to  the  play 
seventy-five  years  ago.  Some  extremely  modern 
music  to  Macbeth  was  composed  by  the  American, 
Mr.  Edgar  S.  Kelley,  but  it  has  been  seldom  heard 
save  at  the  performances  of  the  play  in  San  Francisco 
in  1885.  Very  much  orchestral  music  has  been 
written  about  "Macbeth,"  a  half-dozen  overtures, 
among  them  one  by  Raff  and  one  by  Briill,  and  a 
symphonic  poem  by  Richard  Strauss,  which  is  prob- 
ably the  greatest  musical  outcome  of  the  play.  As 
regards  operatic  settings,  one  finds  only  three,  not 
one  of  them  of  importance.  Auguste  Hix  wrote  a 
French  version,  to  a  libretto  by  Rouget  de  ITsle 
(composer  of  the  "  Marseillaise "),  which  was  after- 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  337 

ward  translated  into  German.     Mr.  Philip  Hale  (in 
the  Boston  Journal)  writes  thus  about  the  setting: 

"  The  music  of  the  first  opera,  ■  Macbeth,'  was  written  by 
Hippolyte  Che'lard,  text  by  Rouget  de  l'lsle  and  Auguste  Hix. 
It  was  produced  for  the  first  time  at  the  Paris  Ope'ra,  June  29, 
1827.  Derdvis  was  Macbeth;  Nourrit,  Douglas;  Dabadie, 
Duncan;  Mrs.  Dabadie,  Lady  Macbeth,  and  Miss  Cinti, 
Moina.  The  trio  of  witches  and  several  choruses  were  re- 
marked, but  the  opera  failed,  and  was  only  performed  five 
times. 

"  It  was  afterward  given  in  German,  and  with  certain 
changes,  at  Munich  in  1828  ;  it  was  then  sung  in  many  German 
towns,  and  July  4,  1832,  it  was  produced  in  German  at  the 
King's  Theatre,  London.  At  Munich  Pellegrini  was  Macbeth 
and  Nanette  Schechner  was  Lady  Macbeth.  In  London  the 
part  of  Lady  Macbeth  was  sung  by  Schroder-Devrient.  Al- 
though Chorley  says  that  her  fatal  and  sinister  acting  as  the 
lady  was  hampered,  in  some  measure,  by  the  music,  — for  this 
demanded  an  executive  facility  which  she  did  not  possess,  —  she 
nevertheless  made  a  deep  impression  on  him.  His  criticism  is 
even  to-day  of  interest :  '  One  could  not  look  at  her  without  at 
once  recollecting  the  ideal  which  Mrs.  Siddons  is  reported  to 
have  conceived  of  this  "  grand,  fiendish  "  character  (to  use  her 
own  epithets).  "  She  had  an  idea,"  says  Mrs.  Jameson,  "  that 
Lady  Macbeth  must,  from  her  Celtic  origin,  have  been  a  small, 
fair,  blue-eyed  woman."  Save  in  stature  the  great  German 
operatic  actress  (daughter,  by  the  way,  to  the  great  Lady  Mac- 
beth of  Germany,  "  die  grosse  Schroder  ")  gave  full  justification 
to  this  fancy.  With  an  alluring  and  dignified  grace  of  manner 
was  combined  an  aspect  of  evil  —  a  sinister,  far-reaching  ex- 
pression in  her  eyes,  all  the  more  terrible  for  their  being  at 
variance  with  those  hues  and  contours  which  we  have  been 
used  to  associate  with  innocence  and  the  tender  affections. 
That  which  makes  the  flesh  creep,  in  the  name  of  "  the  White 


338  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

Devil,"  spoke  in  every  line  of  Madame  Schroder-Devrient's 
face  —  in  her  honeyed  and  humble  smile,  as  she  welcomed  the 
doomed  king;  in  the  mixture  of  ferocity  and  blandishment 
thrown  by  her  into  the  scene  of  the  murder;  in  the  ghastly 
soliloquy  of  the  soul  that  waked  when  the  body  was  asleep. 
When  I  think  of  Pasta,  as  Medea,  watching  the  bridal  train 
pass  by  her,  with  her  scarlet  mantle  gathered  round  her,  the 
figure  of  Madame  Schroder-Devrient's  Lady  Macbeth,  too, 
rises,  as  one  of  those  visions  concerning  which  young  men  are 
apt  to  rave  and  old  men  to  dote.'  The  libretto  departs  widely 
from  Shakespeare's  tragedy." 

Another  setting  was  made  by  Taubert  and  per- 
formed in  Germany,  which  also  departed  from  the 
Shakespearian  path. 

But  the  strangest  alterations  that  Shakespeare  was 
obliged  to  submit  to,  on  his  journey  to  the  operatic 
stage,  took  place  in  the  version  composed  by  Verdi, 
in  1 847,  before  he  decided  to  follow  Wagner  into  the 
domain  of  earnest  librettos.  "  Macbeth,"  with  a  bal- 
let introduced,  with  Lady  Macbeth  singing  a  drink- 
ing-song, with  a  chorus  of  murderers,  with  Macduff 
singing  a  liberty-song,  — 

"  Our  country,  forsaken, 
Our  tears  should  awaken ; 
'Gainst  Tyrants,  unshaken, 
Our  courage  should  rise,"  — 

must  have  been  comical  enough  for  any  Shakespear- 
ian, but  the  Italians  accepted  it  cordially,  and  the 
"liberty-song"  was  received  with  frenzy,  as  a  pro- 
test against  Austrian  tyranny. 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 


339 


Of  the  three  inconsequential  settings  of  "  King 
Lear,"  Kreutzer's  "  Cordelia  "  makes  the  best  opera. 
The  best  musical  outcome  of  this  subject,  however, 
is  an  overture,  by  Berlioz,  "Le  Roi  Lear,"  which 
pictures  the  frenzied  monarch  in  a  manner  not  un- 
worthy of  the  tragedy.  Berlioz  was  one  of  the  great 
composers  who  really  studied  Shakespeare  (as  we 
shall  see  a  little  later  on),  and  his  Shakespeare  set- 
tings may  be  accorded  the  first  rank  among  the 
French  attempts  in  this  field.  His  two  successes 
are,  however,  in  the  orchestral  forms  (sometimes 
with  vocal  addition),  for  his  opera  of  "  Beatrice 
and  Benedict"  ("Much  Ado  About  Nothing")  is 
not  of  high  rank. 

There  are  but  two  operatic  settings  of  "  Othello," 
and  the  first  of  these,  chronologically  speaking,  was 
a  perversion  of  Shakespeare,  by  Rossini.  The  part 
of  Desdemona  was  a  great  favourite  with  both  Pasta 
and  Malibran,  for  it  was  very  singable  music.  It 
was  first  performed  in  1816.  The  great  setting  of 
"  Othello,"  however,  is  due  to  Verdi,  who,  in  his  later 
period,  discarded  the  absurdities  which  marked  such 
librettos  as  that  of  "  Macbeth "  (mentioned  above) 
and  treated  our  poet  with  becoming  respect.  This 
setting  of  "  Othello  "  may  be  pronounced  one  of  the 
very  greatest  operate  of  the  modern  Italian  school, 
and  to  this  result  the  earnest  and  poetic  Shakespear- 
ian, Arrigo  Bofto,  has  contributed  in  no  slight  degree. 


340  SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC. 

When  he  has  changed  a  Shakespearian  libretto  it  has 
generally  been  entirely  in^the  spirit  of  the  poet,  as 
witness  his  introduction  of  Falstaff's  soliloquy  on 
"  Honour  "  ("  Henry  IV.,"  First  Part,  Act  v.  Sc.  i) 
into  the  opera  of  "  Falstaff "  ("  Merry  Wives  of 
Windsor  "),  or  the  addition  of  a  diabolical  creed,  full 
of  "motiveless  malignity,"  to  the  part  of  Iago,  m 
this  opera  of  "  Othello."  But  to  Verdi,  too,  all  honour 
is  due  for  his  dramatic  setting  of  the  text  and  for  the 
abnegation  of  all  attempts  to  allow  the  composer  to 
shine  at  the  expense  of  the  poet. 

"  Hamlet "  has  been  set  as  opera,  even  from  the 
time  of  Domenico  Scarlatti,  yet  no  opera  exists  that 
can  be  called  worthy  of  Shakespeare's  greatest  topic. 
Ambroise  Thomas's  version  has  held  the  boards  in 
France  chiefly  because  it  is  a  very  tuneful  opera. 
Barbier  and  Carre*  (the  librettists)  have  dallied  with 
Shakespeare,  in  the  usual  insouciant  Gallic  fashion  ; 
Ophelia  sings  the  most  ornate  music,  together  with 
a  pretty  Swedish  folk-song,  in  her  mad-scene,  instead 
of  the  very  fitting  music  which  Shakespeare  chose  for 
the  part,  and  which  could  easily  have  been  incorpo- 
rated into  the  opera.  There  is  considerable  orches- 
tral music  founded  upon  "  Hamlet,"  but  this  also 
does  not  attain  the  level  of  the  great  subject. 

"  Romeo  and  Juliet "  is  the  topic  toward  which 
musicians  have  instinctively  turned  as  the  one  afford- 
ing them  the  greatest  chances  in  the  display  of  their 


SHAKESPEARE   IN  MUSIC.  341 

art.  Mr.  William  F.  Apthorp,  in  a  list  of  Shake- 
spearian operatic  settings,  counts  up  seventeen  operas 
that  have  been  made  of  Shakespeare's  play.  They 
range  from  Bellini's  "  I  Capuletti  ed  i  Montecchi," 
with  a  female  Romeo  (Madame  Pasta  loved  the  part), 
to  a  burlesque  entitled,  with  punning  ardour,  "  Rhum 
et  Eau  en  Juillet,"  —  "Rum  and  Water  in  July!" 
Gounod's  sugar-plum,  skilfully  manufactured  out  of 
this  subject,  is  the  most  popular  of  all  the  settings, 
and  will  be  so  as  long  as  a  romantic  tenor  and  an 
attractive  soprano  can  be  found  for  the  chief  pair  of 
the  opera.  Its  performances  in  Paris  alone  are  num- 
bered by  many  hundreds,  and  its  popularity  is  by  no 
means  confined  to  France. 

"  All  the  world  loves  a  lover,"  and  here  the  com- 
posers find  two  of  the  most  attractive  of  them  made 
to  their  hands  ;  therefore  it  is  not  astonishing  to  dis- 
cover the  orchestral  settings  of  the  theme  as  numer- 
ous and  as  important  as  the  operatic  treatments.  It 
would  be  well-nigh  impossible  to  collect  a  list  of  all 
the  orchestral  settings  extant ;  it  may  suffice  to  men- 
tion the  two  most  important.  Berlioz  has  given  to 
the  world  a  "  Romeo  and  Juliet "  symphony,  which 
is  not  a  symphony  at  all,  but  rather  a  free  cantata, 
with  much  orchestral  interluding,  or  a  set  of  orches- 
tral movements  wit!*  vocal  adjuncts.  This  is  the 
very  best  musical  outcome  of  the  Shakespearian  sub- 
ject up  to  the  present  time.     We  have  already  stated 


342  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

that  Berlioz  may  be  ranked  as  the  best  French  Shake- 
spearian in  music ;  for  this  preeminence  there  was  a 
cause.  Berlioz's  grande  passion  was  his  sudden  and 
vehement  affection  (not  so  lasting  as  intense)  for  the 
young  Irish  actress,  Harriet  Smithson.  The  beauti- 
ful actress  had  carried  Paris  by  storm  when  she  ap- 
peared there  in  Shakespearian  r61es.  Berlioz  saw 
her  and  was  one  of  her  willing  captives.  Moved  by 
his  love,  he  began  to  study  the  poets  that  Miss 
Smithson  must  have  read,  and  Moore,  Byron,  and 
Shakespeare  were  studied  with  some  degree  of  en- 
thusiasm. Each  of  these  poets  transmuted  himself 
into  music  in  Berlioz's  hands,  but  it  is  pleasant  to 
notice  that  only  with  Shakespeare  does  he  remain 
faithful  to  the  poetic  model.  In  addition  to  the  two 
Shakespearian  works  already  mentioned,  he  composed 
this  third  one,  the  "  Romeo  and  Juliet "  symphony. 
It  is  a  commendable,  at  times  a  glorious,  Shakespear- 
ian picture.  The  ball  at  the  Capulets,  the  picture  of 
Queen  Mab,  Romeo  brooding  alone  in  the  garden, 
the  combats  of  the  two  houses,  and,  above  all,  the 
balcony  scene  (purely  instrumental,  this  last)  are 
beautiful  illustrations  of  the  transmutation  of  our 
greatest  poet  into  tones.  It  was  falsely  stated  that 
Berlioz  resolved  to  marry  Harriet  Smithson,  and  to 
picture  in  music  the  scene  that  won  him,  when  he 
first  saw  her,  in  the  part  of  Juliet ;  he  has  denied  this, 
although  he  accomplished  both  tasks;  yet  it  is  not 


SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC.  343 

too  much  to  say  that  his  fiery  passion  led  him  to 
Shakespeare,  and  Shakespeare  led  him  to  some  of 
his  greatest  music. 

Tschaikowsky,  the  famous  Russian  composer,  has 
also  won  an  orchestral  triumph  through  this  play. 
His  "  Romeo  and  Juliet  "  overture  must  be  ranked 
among  his  very  best  works,  and  as  one  of  the  worthy 
pictures  of  Shakespeare  in  orchestral  music.  It  is, 
however,  far  less  lyrical  than  Berlioz's  romantic 
scenes,  or  Gounod's  tender  amativeness. 

In  this  final  chapter  we  have  not  endeavoured  to 
give  a  complete  list  of  Shakespearian  orchestral  or 
operatic  music.  Such  a  list  would  be  of  great  di- 
mensions and  might  even  require  a  volume  to  itself. 
We  have  sought  rather  to  show,  by  the  citation  of 
some  of  the  master-works,  what  an  inspiration  Shake- 
speare has  been  to  the  general  musician.  He  has 
been  the  same  to  the  painter  and  to  the  sculptor. 
His  influence  has  permeated  every  art. 

Lawyers  have  been  amazed  at  Shakespeare's  legal 
references  ;  physicians  at  his  medical  knowledge ; 
theologians  at  his  evident  study  of  their  polemics  ; 
we  hope  that  we  have  shown  by  this  book  (and  may 
its  faults  and  shortcomings  be  pardoned  for  the  sake 
of  its  intention)  that  the  musician  has  more  reason 
than  any  of  these  toxjoin  in  the  chorus  of  homage. 
Shakespeare  loved  our  art,  he  understood  it,  and  he 
most  perfectly  voiced  its  beauties  to  the  world.     We 


344  SHAKESPEARE  IN  MUSIC. 

can,  in  common  with  many  another  profession,  pay 
to  him  the  tribute  which  was  written  of  a  lesser 
man:1 

"  Long  shall  we  seek  his  likeness — long  in  vain, 
And  turn  to  all  of  him  which  may  remain, 
Sighing  that  Nature  formed  but  one  such  man, 
And  broke  the  die." 

*  Byron's  lines  on  Sheridan. 


THE   END. 


INDEX 


A.  A.,  64. 

"  Abt  Vogler,"  92. 

"  Actor's  Remonstrance,"  174. 

Adams,  Thomas,  196. 

Addison,  156. 

Advocate's    Library,    Edinburgh, 

192. 
11  Aged  Lover    Renounceth    Love, 

The,''  300-304. 
Albrechtsberger,  40. 
Alfred  the  Great,  230. 
Allen,  Charles,  19-20. 
"  All  Fools,"  20. 
"All's   Well    That  Ends  Well," 

Act  ii.  Sc.  2,  124. 
Amati,  26. 
"Amenities  of  Literature,"  14. 

■  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,"  230. 
"Antony  and  Cleopatra,"  164. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  5,  161. 
"  Aphorisms  "  of  Rich,  31. 
Apthorp,  William  F.,  341. 
"Arcadia,"  158. 
Aristophanes,  161. 
Armin,  Robert,  35. 
Arne,  Doctor,  315,  331,  334. 
Arnold,  Doctor,  234. 
"Arthur  a  Bland,'''  206,  213-214. 
Artusi,  324. 

■  As  It  Fell  upon  a  Day,"  93. 
"As  You   Like   It,"  31 5- 

Act  i.  Sc.  2,  83. 

Act  ii.  Sc.   5,  60-65,  165. 

Act  iv.  Sc.  1,  162. 

Act  iv.  Sc.  2,  222-223. 

Act.  v.  Sc.  3,  65-66,  190-193. 


Bach,  134,  138. 

Bacon,    Francis,    14-24,    32,    56, 

146,  158. 
Bagpipe,  The,  13,  34-36,  74,  H9- 
Ballet,  William,  241. 
Baltazarini,  58  (note). 
Bandora,  The,  17. 
Barbier,  340. 
Barley,  William,  181. 
Barnfield,  Richard,  93. 
Bassoon,  The,  41,  338. 
"  Beatrice  and  Benedict,"  339. 
Beaumont,    20,    56,    no    (note), 

286,  310. 
Beethoven,  40,  335. 
"  Beginning  of  the  World,  The," 

43- 
Bell,  The,  326-327. 
"Belle  Helene,"  166. 
Berlioz,  339,  341-343- 
Bishop,  Sir  Henry,  47,  315,  332, 

334- 
"Black  and  Yellow,"  256,  259. 
"  Bloody  Brother,"  310. 
Bodenstedt,  311. 
Bodleian  Library,  64. 
Boito,  Arrigo,  332,  339-340. 
Boleyn,  Anne,  297. 
"  Bonny  Robin,"  241-242. 
"  Boston    Daily    Advertiser,"    20 

(note). 
"  Boston  Journal,"  337. 
Boston  Public  Library,  n  (note). 
Boswell,  31. 
Brandt,  7^  I44« 
Brawl,  The,  139-140,  142. 


345 


34^ 


INDEX. 


"Break,  break,  break  I "  330  (note). 
Breuning,  Eleonora  von,  335. 
Bridge,  Doctor,  184. 
"  British  Grenadiers,  The,"  142. 
British    Museum,   194,   209,    230, 

290. 
Browning,  40,  41,  92. 
Bruch,  Max,  333. 
Briill,  336. 

Brydges,  Sir  Egerton,  301. 
Bugle,  The,  326. 
Bull,  56. 
Burger,  336. 
Burney,  III,  114,  147,  179,  210, 

299. 
Byrd,   Doctor,   43,    56,   147,   200 

(note),  209. 
Byron,  342,  344. 

"  Qa  Ira,"  233. 

Callcott,  Doctor,  179. 

"  Campbells  are  Comiri,  The"  334. 

Canary,  The,  139-140. 

"  Cancan,"  Offenbach's,  285. 

"  Canterbury,"  99  (note). 

Canute,  King,  230. 

Capell,  64. 

"Captain,"  175  (note). 

"  Carmagnole"  233. 

"  Carman's  Whistle,  The,"  76. 

Carre,  340. 

Chapman,  20. 

Chappell,  60  (note),  74  (note),  192, 

227  (note),  286,  297,  321. 
Charles  L,  176. 
Charles  II.,  313. 
Chaucer,  12,  36. 
Chelard,  Hippolyte,  337. 
Chopin,  53. 
Chorley,  337. 
"  Chronicle,"  Hall's,  147. 
Cinque-pace,  The,  134-136. 
Cinti,  Miss,  337. 
Cithron,  The,  13. 
Clapp,  Henry  Austin,  20-22. 
Clavichord,  The,  80,  81. 
Coke,  20. 
"Collection   of  English    Songs," 

74  (note),  169. 


"  Collection  of  National  English 
Airs,"  60  (note),  74  (note). 

Collier,  35,  64. 

Collin,  335. 

"  Come  away,  Come  away.  Death" 
190. 

"  Comedy  of  Errors,"  333. 
Act  iii.  Sc.  2,  163-164. 

"  Come  live  with  me  and  be  my 
love,"  304-309. 

"  Come   o'er   the  Bourn,  Bessie" 

245- 
"  Come  unto  these  yellow  sands" 

314. 

"  Concerto  Grosse,  No.  7,"  Han- 
del's, 142. 

"  Consort  Lessons,"  209. 

"  Constant    Susanna"    206,    213, 
215. 

Contrabass,  The,  26,  27,  53. 

Cook,  20. 

Coperario,  147. 

"  Cordelia,"  339. 

"  Coriolanus,"  335. 
Act.  v.  Sc.  4,  29. 

Cornemuse,  The,  12. 

Cornemute,  The,  13. 

Cornet,  The,  13,  17-18,  ^6,  201, 
323-324. 

Coranto,  The,  134,  138,  140. 

"  Corydon's  Farewell  to  Phillis" 
206. 

Cowley,  171. 

Cromwell,  174. 

"Crown    Garland    of     Goulden 
Roses,"  276. 

"  Cujus  Animam"  285. 

Cummings,  336. 

Cymbal,  The,  29. 

"  Cymbeline,"  Act  ii.  Sc.  3,  51, 
62,  227. 

Act  v.  Sc.  3,  105. 

Dabadie,  337. 
Dabadie,  Mrs.,  337. 
Dallam,  Thomas,  53. 
" Das  Liebesverbot"  332. 
Davenant,  Sir  William,  336. 
Dekker,  20,  40. 


INDEX. 


347 


"  Deutermelia,"  182,  196-198. 

Derevis,  337. 

**  Diary,"  Manningham's,  209. 

Disraeli,  14. 

Doloony,  77. 

Donizetti,  285. 

Donne,  20. 

Doppler,  313. 

Dowced,  The,  12. 

Dowiand,  John,  56,  93  (and  note). 

Dowland,  Robert,  93  (note). 

Drayton,  Michael,  13-14,  78,  171, 

198. 
"Drink   to   me    only   with    thine 

eyes"  298-299. 
Drum,  The,  29,  30,  31,  32,  201, 

322. 
"  Du   bist  wie  eine  Flume,"  310 

(note). 
"  Ducdame,"  62,  64-65. 
Dulcimer,  The,  12  (note),  29. 
Dump,  The,  67,   69-71,   83,   84, 

142-144. 
Dvorak,  143. 

"  Education,"  Spencer's  Essay  on, 

94,  285. 
Edward,  King,  230. 
Edward  III.,  105. 
Edward  VI.,  57. 
Edwards,  Richard,  70-72. 
Elderton,  286. 
"  Elegy,"  Gray's,  285. 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  41-44,  52,  56, 

57,  70,  124,  174,  179,  200,  209, 

241,  3°7,  327. 
Ely,  Bishop  of,  89  (note). 
"  England's  Helicon,"  305,  309. 
Erasmus,  79. 
"  Essay es"  of  Francis  Bacon,  22- 

24. 
Essex,  39. 
Este,  T.,  216. 
"  Euridice,"  25  (note). 
"  Evening  Hymn,  An"  107^1 09. 

"  Faerie  Queene,"  289. 
«  Falstaff,"  332,  340. 


"  Farewell  to  the  Military  Profes- 
sion," 134. 

Farmer,  64,  219. 

Farrant,  56. 

"  Father  Hubbard's  Tales,"  39. 

«  Faust,"  330. 

Ferrabosco,  147. 

Field,  20. 

Field,  Miss,  234. 

Fielding,  321. 

Fife,  The,  13,  29,  30-32,  145,  201. 

"First  Booke  of  Ayres,  The," 
216. 

First  Psalm,  Bacon's  translation 
of,  20-22. 

Fitz-Stephen,  77. 

Flageolet,  The,  32. 

Fletcher,  20,  56,  100,  no  (note), 
I73>  J75  (note),  241,  243,  286, 
304,  310. 

Flute,  The,  13,  17,  18,  25  (note), 
26,  30,  32,  41,  74,  77,  324. 

"  Flying  Fame"  261-268. 

Ford,  20,  142. 

Forde,  56. 

"  For  He's  a  Jolly  Good  Fellow? 

233- 

Forster,  Mrs.,  234. 

"Fortune"  269. 

Franz,  P>.obert,  94,  330. 

Fuchs,  Rein  eke,  89. 

Fuller,  107-109,  289. 

"Full  Fatho?ns  Five,"  187-189, 
3M. 

Furness,  58  (note),  64,  114,  154, 
167  (note),  183  (note),  208 
(note),    223     (note),    253,    254, 

3"- 

Furnivall,  53,  304,  306. 
Fytton,  Mrs.,  38  (note). 

Galliard,  The,  126,  133-136,  140, 

142. 
Galuppi,  Martini,  40-41. 
"  Gammer  Gurton's  Nedle"  169. 
Garcia,  335. 
"  Gemutus,    The  Jew  oj  Venice? 

254-261. 
Gervinus,  311. 


348 


INDEX. 


Gibbons,  Orlando,  56. 

Gildon,  310. 

Giovanni,  Ser,  254. 

"  Gioventu  di  Enrico  V.,  La"  335. 

Gittern,  The,  13. 

Goethe,  311,  330. 

Goetz,  Hermann,  333. 

Gosson,  173. 

"  Gotterdammerung,"  325. 

Gounod,  341,  343. 

Grassineau,  12  (note),  29. 

Gray,  285. 

Greene,  20. 

Greenhill,  304. 

"  Greensleeves"  284-287. 

"Ground  Bass,"  115  (note). 

Guarnerius,  26. 

Guido  of  Arezzo,  81,  106. 

Guitar,  The,  25  (note),  45. 

Hale,  Philip,  337. 
Hall,  147,  241  (note.) 
Hailing,  The,  121. 
Halliwell,  64,  238,  253. 
**  Hamlet,"  20,  340. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  2,  281-284,  316- 
318. 

Act  iii.  Sc.  1,  326-327. 

Act  iii.  Sc.  2,  32-33,  322-      J 

Act  iv.  Sc.  5,  221,  233-244, 
297. 

Act  v.  Sc.  1,  299-300. 
"  Handbook  of  Shakespeare  Mu- 
sic," 304. 
Handel,  59  (note),  138,  142. 
Hanmer,  62,  228. 
"Harhf    hark!    the   lark,"    228, 

312-313. 
Harp,  The,  18,  28,  74,  155,  328. 
Harpsichord,  The,  25  (note). 
Harrison,  304. 
Hauptmann,  91. 

Hautboy,  The,  13,  29,  55,  81,  324. 
"  Have  you  not  heard"  282-284. 
Hawkins,   Sir  John,  210,  244,  286, 

3°7- 
Hay,  Lord.  147. 
Hay,  The,  148,  149. 
Haydn,  315. 


"  Hearfs-ease,"  67-69. 

Heine,  310  (note),  330. 

Henry  III.  of  France,  58  (note). 

"Henry    IV.,"  Part  I.,   199,  334, 

335- 

Act  i.  Sc.  1,  34 ;  Act  ii.  Sc.  4, 

52,175- 
Act  iii.  Sc.  1,  116-117,  155— 

156. 
Act  iii.  Sc.  2,  55. 
Act  v.  Sc.  1,  340. 
"  Henry  IV.,"  Part  II.,  199,  334- 

335- 

Induction,  54. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  1,  73. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  4, 173,  296. 

Act.  iii.  Sc.  2,  76,  225-226. 

Act  v.  Sc.  3,  276. 
"  Henry  VI.,"  Part  I.,  331. 

Act  i.  Sc.  1,  327. 
Henry  VII.,  121. 
Henry  VIII.,  57,  79,    89   (note), 

145,  220. 
Hentzner,  P.,  201  (note),  327. 
Herbert,  William,  Earl  of   Pem- 
broke, 38  (note),  91. 
"  Hermione,"  333. 
Herold,  335. 
"Hey  down  a  down"   206,    213- 

214. 
Hey  wood,  20. 
Hilton,  101,  223. 
"History    of    Music,"    in,    147, 

179,  244. 
"  History  of  the  Gentle  Craft,"  77. 
Hix,  Auguste,  336-337. 
"Hold  Thy  Peace"  205,  21 0-21 1. 
Holinshed,  147. 
Holmes,  George,  176-177. 
Hone,  105  (note). 
Hood,  Robin,  121,  122,  213. 
Horace,  31. 
Horn,  315. 
Horn,  The,  59,  141. 
Hornpipe,  The,  141-142,  149. 
"  How  Should  I  Your  True  Lover 

Know"  221,  234-238. 
Hunsden,  Lord,  41-42. 
"  Hunfs-up,"  116,226-227. 


INDEX. 


349 


"I    Capuletti    ed   i    Montecchi," 

34i. 

"  Imperfections  of  Modern  Music, 

The,"  324. 
"Introduction   to    the    Skill     of 

Musick,"  90,98,  103,  109-110, 

112-113. 
Isle,  Rouget  de  V,  336-337. 
"  Itinerarium,"  201  (note). 
"  Itinerary,"  227,  327. 
"  //  was  a  Lover  and  His  Lass" 

I9*-I93>  3°4- 

"Jack,  Boy,  Hoi  Boy!"  221. 
Jaggard,  William,  92,  304. 
James  I.,  56,  57  (note). 
Jameson,  Mrs.,  337. 
Jig,  The,  119,  i2if  134,  I35>  l3s~ 

141,  142. 
"Jog  onij°g  on  the  Joot-path  way" 

247-248. 
Johnson,  Doctor,  156,  208,225. 
Johnson,  Richard,  276,314  (note). 
Johnson,  Robert,  147, 184-189. 
Jones,  Inigo,  147. 
Jones,  Robert,  216-219. 
Jonson,    Ben,     20,    52,    56,    1 10, 

(note),  147,  171,  173,  298. 
Jordan,  Mrs.,  234. 
"  Julius  Caesar." 

Act  i.  Sc.  2,  156-157. 
Act  iv.  Sc.  3,  51. 
Act  iv.  Sc.  4,  16. 

Kamarinskaia,  The,  121. 

Kelley,  Edgar  S.,  336. 

Kempe,    Will,    69,    1 21-122,  322 

(note). 
"King  Cophetua  and  the  Beggar 

Maid,"  275-281. 
"  King  Harry  the  VIIFs  Pavyn," 

1 36- 1 37- 
«  King  Henry  V.,w  325. 

Act  i.  Sc.  2,  95.  ^ 

Act  ii.  Sc.  4,  124. 

Act  iii.  Sc.  2,  54,  105. 

Act  iv.  Sc.  2,  325-326. 

Act  iv.  Sc.  8,  326. 

Act  v.  Sc.  2,  82. 


"  King  Henry  VIII.,"  328,  335. 

Act  i.  Sc.  3,  29. 
"  King  John." 

Act.  v.  Sc.  7,  53-54. 
"King  Lear,"    243-245,  261-268, 
320-321. 

Act  i.  Sc.  2,  in,  115. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  1,  325. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  4,  325. 

Act  iii.  Sc.  6,  245. 
"King     Lear    and    His     Three 

Daughters,"  262-268. 
"  King  Richard  II." 

Act  i.  Sc.  3,  28. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  1,94-95. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  5,  84  (note). 

Act  iii.  Sc.  4,  138. 

Act  v.  Sc.  5,  88. 
"  King  Richard  III.,"  334. 
King's  College,  53. 
Kit,  The,  13. 

Knight,  31,  64,  in,  158,  161,  207, 
223,  235  (note),  240,  253,  311 
(note). 
"  Kreutzer,"  339. 
"Kyng's  Maske,  The,"  145-146. 

"  Lady  Carey's  Dump,"  143. 

Lamb,  Charles,  156. 

Laneham,  124. 

Laniere,  Nic,  147. 

"  VAnima e nel  Corpo"  25  (note). 

Lawes,  Henry,  147. 

Lawes,  William,  147. 

"  Legend   of   Thomas  Cromwell, 

Earl  of  Essex,"  198. 
Lessing,  311. 
"  Life  of  Purcell,"  336. 
"■Light  o'  Love"  97,  99-101,  140. 
Linley,  234,  315. 
"  Litchfield,"  99. 
Locke,  Matthew,  336. 
Long  Dance,  The,  252. 
"  Lord  Lovell"  233. 
Lounsbury,  T.  R.,  12  (note). 
Loure,  The,  138. 
"Lover's  Complaint,  A"  290-296 
"Love's  Labour's  Lost,"  331. 
Act  i.  Sc.  2,  275. 


350 


INDEX. 


Act  iii.  Sc.  i,  139-140. 
Act  iv.  Sc.  1,  280-281. 
Act  iv.  Sc.  2,  114-115,  122- 

123. 
Act  v.  Sc.  1,  148. 
Act  v.  Sc.  2,  104,  137-138. 
"  Loyal  Subject,  The,"  286. 

*  Lucia  di  Lammermoor "  285. 
Lute,  The,  13,  15, 17,  18,  25  (note), 

26,  34,  37,  43»  44-52>  54>  55>  69 
(note),  71,  74,  80,  84,  85,  93, 
109,  116. 

"  Lute-book,"  Ballet's,  241. 

Lyly,  20,  289. 

Lyre,  The,  25  (note). 

"  Macbeth, "  314,  335-338. 

Macfarren,  Sir  G.  A.,  81  (note). 

"  Malbrooke,"  233. 

Malibran,  339. 

Malmesbury,  William  of,  230. 

Malone,  34,  252,  322. 

"  Mambron,"  233. 

Mandolin,  The,  yj,  81. 

Manningham,  John,  209. 

Marion,  Maid,  121,  122,  125. 

Marlowe,  56,  304-309. 

" Marseillaise"  334,  346. 

Marston,  20. 

Martin,  Humphrey,  124. 

Mary,  Queen,  57. 

Massinger,  20,  56. 

Mattheson,  47. 

"Maud,"  41. 

Mazurka,  The,  120. 

Measure,  The,  135,  136,  137-138. 

"  Measure  for  Measure,"  332. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  1,  175. 

Act  iv.  Sc.  1,  166-167,  310. 
Melvil,  Sir  James,  41-43. 
Mendelssohn,  333-334. 
u  Merchant  of  Venice,  The,"  21, 
254-261. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  5,  30,  145. 

Act  iii.  Sc.  2,  223,  225. 

Activ.  Sc.  1,35,  1 51-153. 

Act  v.  Sc.  1,  162,  325. 

*  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  The," 

33^34  2. 


Act  i.  Sc.  3,  240. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  1,  284-285. 

Act  iii.  Sc.  1,  305-306. 

Act  v.  Sc.  5,  284. 
Mersennus,  30,  324. 
Middleton,  20,  39. 
"  Midsummer-Night's  Dream,  A,n 
21,  333-334- 

Act  ii.  Sc.  1,  163. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  2,  133. 

Act  v.  Sc.  1,  33-34,  328-329. 

Act  v.  Sc.  2,  126. 
Milton,  25  (note),  147. 
Minuet,  The,  136. 
Mommsen,  311. 
Monochord,  The,  80,  81. 
Moore,  342, 

"Moral  Plays,"  Skelton's,  172. 
Morley,    56,    101,    102-104,    126, 

156  (note),  203,  209. 
"  Morning  Song"  226-227. 
Morris-dance,  The,  120-125,  139, 

148,  149,  245. 
Moryson,  Fynes,  227. 
Mozart,  92  (note),  299. 

*  Much    Ado    About    Nothing," 

122,  133,  289,  339. 

Act  i.  Sc.  1,  241. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  1,  55,  65, 135, 139. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  2,  1 50. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  3,  31-33,  57-60, 
118,  162-163. 

Act  iii.  Sc.  2,  51. 

Act  iii.  Sc.  4,  99-100,  140. 
"Musa    Madrigalesca,"   124-125, 
196. 

•  Musical  Companion,"  178-179, 

223. 
"  Musical  Illustrations  of  Ancient 

English  Poetry,"  216,  269. 
Musicians,  Status  of,  25,  57-76. 
"  My  flocks  feed  not"  309. 

Nash,  20. 

"  National  Music,"  286. 

Naylor,  Edward  W.,  30,  35,  73, 

79,  143,  195-196,  253,  286. 
"  Nest  of  Ninnies,  A,"  35. 
Nicolai,  332. 


INDEX. 


351 


Norman,  Sir  John,  194. 

"  Notes  and  Queries,"  64. 

"  Notes  on  the  Bacon-Shake- 
speare Question,"  20. 

Nourrit,  337. 

" Now  God  be  with  old  Simeon" 
75.  21 5. 

" Now  is  the  Month  of  Maying" 
103,  203. 

Oboe,  The,  18,  323,  324. 
Offenbach,  166,  285. 
"  Oh,  Death,  rocke  me  asleep"  296- 
297. 

•  Oh  I  Willow,  Willow,  Willow!" 
288-296. 

*  Old  English  Ditties,"  227  (note), 

297. 
"  Old  Meg  of  Herefordshire  for  a 

Maid  Marian,"  149. 
Oliphant,  124,  195-198. 
■  0  Mistress  Mine"  190,  204-205, 

208-210. 
Opera,  Invention  of  the,  12. 
Ophicleide,  The,  333. 
Organ,  The,  53-54,  89  (note). 
"  Orpheus  with  His  Lute,"  304. 
"  0,  Salce,  Salce,"  290. 
"Othello,"  31,  339,  340. 
Act  ii.  Sc.  1,  87. 
Act  ii.  Sc.  3,  199-200. 
Act  iii.  Sc.  1,  154-155. 
Act  iv.  Sc.  3,  28S-296,  297. 
Oxford,  Lord,  39. 

Paderewski,  39. 

Paine,  John  K.,  331. 

u  Pammelia,"   179,   181-182,    197, 

200  (note). 
Pandore,  The,  13  (see  also  Ban- 

dora). 
"  Pare  du  Richmon"  335. 
Passacaglia,  The,  120. 
Passa-mezzo,  The,  136. 
Pasta,  338,  339,  341. 
"  Passionate  Pilgrim,"  78,  92-93, 

95»  304,  3°9- 
Pavane,  The,  119,  136-137,  140, 
142,  144. 


Peele,  20. 

"Peg-a-Ramsey,"  206,  21 1-2 12. 

Pellegrini,  337. 

Pemberton,  99. 

Pembroke,  Earl  of,  (see  William 

Herbert). 
Pepys,  37 •,  76,  215,  290. 
Percy,    Bishop,    74     (note),    213, 

220,   255,    269,   276,    282,    290, 

3OI>  3°3- 

"  Pericles." 

Act  1.  Sc.  1,  28. 
Act  v.  Sc.  1,  164. 

Piano,  The,  37,  38,  39,  81. 

" Piers  Ploughman"  64. 

Pipe,  The,  13,  17,  18,  31-33,  54, 
66,  141,  149,  155,  182,  319. 

Playford,  John,  90,  98,  102,  109- 
no,  1 1 2-1 1 3,  178,  223. 

Plautus,  147. 

Polka,  The,  120. 

«'  Poly-Olbion,"  13-14. 

Pope,  158,235  (note). 

Praetorius,  134. 

"  Proceedings  of  the  Musical  As- 
sociation," 81  (note). 

Psaltery,  The,  29. 

Puns,  Shakespeare's  fondness  for, 
25,  33,  66  (note),  82,  83,  85, 
102, 104-105, 115,  118,  i37-i38» 
179. 

Purcell,  Henry,  57,  106-109,  115 
(note),  314-315,  331,336. 

Pythagoras,  165. 

Raff,  336. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  39,  309. 

"  Rape  of  Lucrece,  The,"  78, 83-84. 

Ravenscroft,  56,  182. 

Recorder,  The,  13,  17,  18,  32-34. 

Rede,  The,  12. 

Reichardt,  J.  F.,  336. 

"  Reigen,"  1 20. 

"  Reliques    of    Ancient    English 

Poetry,"   74    (note),    213,    220, 

255,  269,  290,  303. 
"  Return  from  Parnassus,"  122. 
Rhum  et  Eau  en  Juillet,  341. 
Rich,  Barnaby,  31,  134,  135. 


352 


INDEX. 


Richter,  40. 

Rimbault,  216,  255,  269,  303. 

Rinca  Fada,  252. 

Ritson,  74  (note),  169,  196,   197, 

298,  301. 
"  Robin  Hood  is  to  the  Greenwood 

Gone"  241. 
"  Robyn,  Jolly    Robyn,    A"    219- 

220. 
Roffe,  304. 
"  Roi  Lear,  Le,"  339. 
Roife,  289. 

Romanesca,  The,  126-132,  135. 
"  Romeo    and    Juliet,"    122,   331, 
340-343. 

Act  i.  Sc.  5,  88-90,  102,  118. 
Act  ii.  Sc.  2,  276. 
Act  ii.  Sc.  4,  215. 
Act  iii.  Sc.  1,  25-26. 
Act  iii.  Sc.  5,  115-116. 
Act    iv.   Sc.    5,    66-73,    *44> 
275,  322  (note). 
Rossini,  285,  290,  339. 
"  Rosy  Bowers"  314-315. 
"  Retybulle  Joyse"  80,  81. 
Round    Dances,    120,    126,    133, 

148. 
Rowbotham,  74. 
Rowe,  158. 
Rowley,  20. 
"  Rmo  the  Boat,  Norman,  Row" 

194-195. 
"  Rum  and  Water  in  July"  341. 

Sackbut,  The  (see  also  Sagbut), 

17,  18,  29. 
Sagbut,  The  (see  also  Sackbut), 

"  Sappho  and  Phao,"  289. 

Sarabande,  The,  1 19. 

"  Satiro-Mastix,  or  the   Untruss- 

ing  of  the    Humourous  Poet," 

40. 
Scarlatti,  Domenico,  340. 
Schechner,  Nanette,  337. 
Schlag- Zither,  The,  29. 
Schlegel,  311. 
Schmidt,  205  (note). 
Schroder-Devrient,  337,  338. 


Schubert,    86   (note),   228,   312- 

3J3.  330. 
Schumann,  330. 
Scott,  169. 
"  Select     Collection    of    English 

Songs,"  298. 
"  Sellinger's  Round,"  43-44,  120. 
Serpent,  The,  36,  324. 
Sewall,  Samuel,  99. 
Sewel,  310. 
Shadwell,  314,  331. 
"  Shakespeare    and    Music,"    30, 

73»  79.  *43>  i95>  253>  286- 
"Shakespeare  in  Germany,"  311 

(note). 
Shalmyes,  The,  12. 
Shawm,  The,  13. 
"Shepherd's  Calendar,"  149. 
Sheridan,  344. 
"  Ship  of  Fools,"  73,  144. 
Shirley,  20. 
Shore,  John,  98. 
"  Short  apologie  of  the  Schoole 

of  Abuse,"  174. 
Siddons,  Mrs.  337. 
Sidney,  56. 
"  Siegfried,"  325. 
"Sigh  no  more  ladies,"  59. 
"Silent  Woman,  The,"  52,  173. 
Simpson,  Christopher,  115. 
Skelton,  John,  79-81,  169,  171- 

172. 
Smithson,  Harriet,  342. 
Spanish  Fandango,  121. 
"  Speculum  Mundi,"  289. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  94,  285. 
Spenser,  20,  56,  149,  289. 
Spinet,  The,  29,81. 
Spohr,  336. 
"  Sportive  Wit,"  252. 
"  Sports  and  Pastimes,"  105 

(note). 
Staunton,  64,  244. 
"  St.  Leger's  Round,"  43. 
Steevens,   34,    35>   64>   142,    153- 

154,  158,  208,  235  (note),  322. 
Stevens,  315. 
Still,  John,  169. 
Stowe,  322. 


INDEX. 


353 


Stradivarius,  26-27. 
Strauss,  Richard,  336. 
Strutt,  105  (note). 
Strype,  89  (note). 
St.  Saens,  335. 
Stuart,  Mary,  41-42. 
" Sumer  is  icumen  in"  194. 
Swan,  289. 
Swift,  Dean,  79,  156. 
Sydney,  158. 

"  Sylva  Sylvarum,"  14-19,  158. 
"  Sympson's  Compendium  of  Mu- 
sick,"  179-180. 

Tabor,  The,   13,   29,  32,  33,  148, 

182,  319. 
"  lake   Those  Lips  Away"   166- 

168,304,  309-311. 
"  Take     1/iy     Old    Cloak    about 

Thee,"  202-203. 
Tallis,  56. 
"''>ming   of    the    Shrew,   The," 

333- 
Act  i.  Sc.  2,  114. 
Act  ii.  Sc.  1,  45-46,  222. 
Act  iii.  Sc.  1,  47-50,  109-110, 

in,  156  (note),  207. 
Act  iv.  Sc.  1,  221. 
Ta  -bert,  338. 
"  TeJ  me,  where  is  fancy  bred," 

225. 
"Tempest,    The,"    21,    145,    163, 
184-190,  314,  331. 
Act  ii.  Sc.  2,  183-184. 
Act  iii.  Sc.  2,  182-183.. 
Act  iv.  Sc.  1,  53. 
Tennyson,  41,  156,  330. 
Theobald,  252. 
Theodal,  Bishop,  81. 
Therbo,  The,  13. 
"  There  were  three  crorvs  sat  on  a 

tree"  233. 
Thomas,  Ambroise,  331,  340. 
"  Three  Blind  Mice,"  194. 
"  Three  Merry  Men  be  We?  195, 

206,  213-214. 
Tibia,  The,  30,  31,  32. 
Tieck,  311. 
Tieze,  312. 


"  Timon  of  Athens,"  145,  328. 
"Tinkers'  Catch,  The,"  75. 

"Titus     Andronicus,"    78,    268- 

.  274. 
"  Titus  Andronicusys  Complaint" 

269-274. 
"Toccata   of    Martini    Galuppi," 

40. 
Trinity  College,  Dublin,  241. 
"  Trip  arid  Go,"  123. 
"  Troilus  and  Cressida." 
Act  i.  Sc.  3,  88. 
Act  iii.  Sc.  1,  82. 
Trombone,  The,  18,  29. 
"  Troubadours     and     Courts    of 

Love,"  74. 
Trumpet,  The,  17, 18,  29,  77,  152, 

201,  323-326. 
Tschaikowsky,  343. 
Tuck,  Friar,  121. 
Tusser,  208. 

"  Twelfth  Night,"  167  (note),  190, 
i95>  x99>  319-320,  334- 
Act  i.  Sc.  1,  157-158. 
Act  i.  Sc.  2,  96. 
Act  i.  Sc.  3,  27-28,  133-134, 

139,  145- 

Act  i.  Sc.  4,  96. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  3,   172,  203-219, 
275,  297. 

Act  ii.  Sc.  4,  1 59-161. 

Act  iii.  Sc.  1,  164. 

Act  iv.  Sc.  2,  219-220. 

Act  v.  Sc.  1,  136. 
"  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona." 

Act  i.  Sc.  2,  96-98,  102,  104, 
207. 

Act  iii.  Sc.  2,  84-85,  144. 

Act  iv.  Sc.  2,  85-87,  226. 
"  Two  Lovers,  The,"  69. 
"Two  Noble  Kinsmen,"  100,  241, 

245- 
Tye,  56. 
Tyrwhitt,  252. 

Udine,  Girolamo  da,  324. 
"  Under  the  greenwood  tree"  60- 
63. 


354 


INDEX. 


"  Variorum  Edition,"  Furness, 
58  (note),  64,  114,  154,  167 
(note),   183  (note),   223  (note), 

253>  3"- 
Vaux,  Lord,  301. 
Verdi,  290,  332,  338,  339-340. 
Verulam,      Lord     (see      Francis 

Bacon). 
Viol,  The,  13,  18,  25  (note),  26- 

29,  75,  81,  115. 
Violin,    The,    18,    26-27,  29,   41, 

53.  73>  333- 

Violincello,  The,  27. 

Violl  (see  Viol). 

Violone,  The,  27. 

Virginal,  The,  18,  26,  37-45,  80, 
81. 

"  Virginal  Book,"  Queen  Eliza- 
beth's, 209,  241. 

Volkmann,  334. 

Wagner,   Richard,  94,   285,   318, 

325,  332,  338. 
Walker,  Charles  R.,  243. 
Waltz,  The,  120. 
Warburton,  236. 
Ward,  Vicar,  171. 
Warren,  197. 
Warton,  208. 
Webster,  20. 
"  Wedding  March,"  334. 
Weelkes,  Thomas,   s6,  122,   126, 

3°9- 
Weimar,  Duke  of,  323. 
Wendell,  Barrett,  331. 


"  We  Won't  Go  Home  Till  Morn. 

ing"  233. 
Weyse,  336. 
"  What  shall  he  have  that  killed  the 

deer  ?"  223-224. 
"  When    Griping   Grief,"   67,  68, 

70-72. 
"  When  that  I  was  a  little  tiny 

boy,"  319-322. 
"  Where  the  Bee  Sucks,"   184-186. 
White,  99. 
White,  Richard  Grant,  30-31,  35, 

7^,  82,  in,  158,   161,  222,  223, 

310. 
Whitman,  Walt,  163. 
"  Who  is  Sylvia"  304. 
"  Widerspenstigen    Zahmung, 

P^"  333- 
Wieland,  311. 
Wilbye,  56. 
Wilkins,  20. 
Willard,  99. 
Wilson,  Doctor  John,  58  (note,, 

167,  314. 
"  Windsor,"  99. 
*  Winter's  Tale,"  74,  ^3- 
Act  i.  Sc.  2,  38. 
Act  iv.  Sc.  2,  141,  195,  24.6- 

248. 
Act  iv.  Sc.  3,  195,  221,  24f 
254. 
"  Worthies,"  289. 

Zarlino,  165. 
Zumpogna,  The,  34. 


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